


Zootopia - The 5th Wave

by JackeyAmmy21



Category: The 5th Wave Series - Rick Yancey, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Friendship/Love, Loss of Parent(s), Minor Character Death, Multi, Multiple Journeys, Multiple Partners, Natural Disasters, Platonic Romance, War, Weapons, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 52,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23702854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackeyAmmy21/pseuds/JackeyAmmy21
Summary: Five months have passed since the Night Howlers incident and Judy & Nick are having the best time of their life, but when a mysterious object appears on the sky they will have their lives turned upside down in ways they never expected to.-"Don't be dumb, fox"-"Keep being sly, bunny"
Relationships: Finnick/Original Character, Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, Nick Wilde & Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 13





	1. Life Couldn't be Better

**Author's Note:**

> Hello There! Take note that english is not my first language so if you see any mistakes please inform me about it!
> 
> This is also my first fanfic in this site so I hope it's not bad - Also there is the inclusion of one of my OC's so bear with me

Life couldn’t be better.

Five months ago, the first rabbit in Zootopia, Judy Hopps, joined he ZPD as a parking meter maid, however during that job she met a fox named Nick Wilde who would later become her partner after stopping an evil plot to split Zootopia, a plan that almost became true.

Now, Judy and Nick were cop partners with a personal vehicle and Nick’s new job managed to get him enough for an apartment in a building in Savanah Central, though not the same building as Judy lived in, but it was fine, they had operating shifts throughout Monday to Friday, with Saturday and Sunday giving them plenty of time to chill out in ice cream shops or a simple walk in the park.

While for Judy it was the dream she always wanted to do, for Nick it was a complete turn of his life, from being a criminal hustler every day from the streets to now stopping criminals… every day. In fact he even went through a change of partner, from being with Finnick, a fennec fox to being now with the Officer Hopps or how he likes to call her “Carrots”.

Today, it was a simple Sunday, Nick woke up in his apartment and after finally getting out of bed and stretching out he quickly texted Judy.

- _have anything planned for today carrots?_

He didn’t actually expected her to reply instantly since it was like 8:10 in the morning but it was like the daily routine so whatever, he went to the kitchen, which was practically next to his room since he afforded a small but basic apartment, and served himself a quick cereal for breakfast while waiting for Judy’s response.

- _idk, do you have something to do?_

_-I expected u to say that and I expected myself to tease you again into saying u have something to do but I actually have something new to do today_

_-really? And what is it_

_-maybe I should take this day off to visit my previous partner in crime_

_-wow, you want to see Finnick?_

_-yea, why?_

_-well, it’s kinda surprising that you want to do that after all this time_

_-yea, I just feel like I should talk to him ya know?_

_-if that is how you feel shouldn’t you talk to him alone?_

_-u think so?_

_-well, duh, he’s a friend of yours, maybe I’ll meet you later but you do your thing_

_-lol, now that u say it, maybe u can wait for us with an milkshake or anything different, a donut perhaps?_

_-…_

_-what?_

_-forget it, I’ll wait for you in the station_

_-u mean the train station right?_

_-do you know any other station?_

_-heh_

That was the end of that conversation for now. Nick was going to search for the alley that Finnick’s van usually was, he was planning on offering him a new life as well, they were doing the hustling job for several years now and became pretty good partners and friends so leaving all of that so suddenly may have left him amused.

He put on his usual wearing and headed out into the city looking for his old pal and after wandering for like half an hour he did found the same van in the same spot it has always been.

Nick slowly approached the van and gently but loud knocked the door waiting for Finnick, for some reason the door didn’t open as fast as Nick thought it would so he knocked again.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, geez!” said a voice from inside the van that Nick didn’t recognize.

“I’ve told you, I’m literally right here, you don’t need to knock so-” the doors opened and what Nick saw was not Finnick but a hyena, with a black t-shirt and red jeans a bit taller than Nick, that was just as confused as he was.

“Who are you?” the hyena asked.

“Me? This is Finnick’s van so you tell me who are you first”.

“Oooh,” said the hyena with a grin “You’re Nick Wilde, of course! Why wouldn’t I remember you, you saved Zootopia and you are Finnick’s ex-boyfriend”.

“What?!”

“Just messing with ya fella, you’re his previous partner in crime are you?”

“Uh… yes, and now that we’ve established who I am, do you wanna establish who are you and where is Finnick?”

The hyena chuckled

“Calm down foxy, your friend is okay, he should be back at any time now and me? My name is Zachary, please call me Zachy”.

“Well, Zachy, and what are you doing here?”

“Ha! It’s actually funny you ask, you see… I… I am his new partner”.

“You are what?!”

“Yeah, it’s true, I met him when he was trying to trick me over something but of course, I outsmarted him and we’ve been partners since… all of that happened after you left- oh! Here he comes”.

They both looked to the left and Finnick was there shocked to see Nick again.

“Hey Finnick! Good to see ya!” said Nick but Finnick with an annoyed look just ignored him giving the coldest ‘hello’ you can imagine and entered the driver’s seat.

“C’mon Finn, I just want to talk with you!” shouted Nick from behind while approaching the front of the van “How is life going?”

“What about your life?” he finally asked but without making eye contact

“Hey, I know you have many reasons to be mad at me… which was kinda your fault because you didn’t helped either… but I wanted to tell you that maybe we can get you a better life like me”.

“I like my life the way it is, go back to yours… with the fuzz”.

“That means he’s not interested officer Nicky!” shouted Zachy from behind

“This is none of your business you-!”

“Actually this is his business now Nick” said Finnick.

“In fact, I am a cop that has evaded taxes and my partner knows that so you won’t be any different”

Finnick finally looked at Nick with a look that the fox understood that he did not wanted to talk right now and that he had no option but to leave.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” asked Zachy before Nick fully left.

“Put your head in a oven”.

“Oh c’mon, don’t be like that foxy! I promise I won’t mock you”.

“What a relief…”

“No really, Finnick has told me in every heist o hustle we’ve made that you were 10 times better at this job so I think that he reacted like that because of the long time it has happened but if you come more often I’m pretty sure he’ll warm up to you again”.

“Oh, okay then… I’ll-”

“Also, the three can of us can become an amazing trio in this hustling thing ya know”

“Yeah, no, I left this job, and take note: The only reason why I’m not reporting you is because you’re associated with Finn, ok?”

“Okie dokie, you should go back to your friend/partner/crush/girlfriend?”

Nick stormed out with Zachy making a ‘heart’ symbol behind his back and returning to the van next to Finnick who had a neutral expression.

“So… I invited him to come again in another occasion, knew you would be okay with it”.

“Did you tell that… that we’re…”

“Dating? Nopity nope, he’s going to tease me if I do it”.

* * *

Maybe Zachy was right, maybe he should come more often, maybe it was the suddenness of his decisions and changes that angered Finnick but he would definitely come again. Now he had another job, go the Savanah Station and find Judy.

After wandering for a few minutes, Judy was sitting in a bench with three donuts waiting and made a friendly wave after spotting Nick.

“Hey there carrots! You did buy something after all”.

“What were you expecting? This is what we always do, where’s Finnick anyways?”

“Yeah… it didn’t go as I thought it would, I’m pretty sure he’s still mad at me”.

“Are you telling me I bought this third donut for nothing?”

“Not at all! His new partner told me that I should come back again and I was planning on doing it”

“His new partner?”

“Yeah,” he sighed “A hyena, complete jerk”.

“Oh, wow… Actually Nick, this idea of yours made me realize that I should also pay a visit to someone I haven’t in these past months”.

“And that is..?”

“My family, of course, though if I truly want to spend time with them it will have to be next Saturday, not now”.

“I see”.

The rest of the day went as usual, they finished eating their donuts with Nick taking the third one with him in a bag, already in their houses again, and Nick narrated his conversation with Finnick to Judy through phone messages.

After all he would visit his buddy soon and maybe then the fennec would accept Nick’s offer to get him a new life, or even invite him to Bunnyborrow when Judy decided to visit her family, as for that hyena… It was going to be one hell of a ride for both of them.

But have you ever heard people say that shouldn’t plan too much far ahead? Well, all of them were going to experience that in the hardest way possible.

* * *


	2. No More Everything We Took for Granted

In the next Monday morning, everything started completely normal for Nick; his shift would start at 7:30am so he woke up at the usual 6:00am. Neither Judy nor Nick had a car but they promised each other that the first one to get a car would get to take the other for a ride to the ZPD.

Nick usually just ate a butter sandwich and sneak another one for job, and since it was early he did not called or texted Judy until at least 7:00am, but he was surprised when he saw the notification in his phone minutes after waking up.

- _are you going today?_

- _lol yes, why wouldn’t I?_

_-what? Haven’t you seen the news?_

_-u know I don’t have a TV nor a radio carrots… a phone was more important_

_-you literally don’t need to! Look at the sky!_

Nick went to the window and what he saw made him just jaw-drop, a gigantic and gray object that looked like an upside down city, floating in the sky… it was an UFO an actual unidentified ship in the sky that he did not expected in a thousand years to actually appear.

- _I think I’m still going-_ texted Nick

- _why?_

_-because first, I’m not scared and second, maybe the zpd will know how to handle it_

_-well if you put it like that then… maybe I should go as well_

_-we’ll talk about it there ok?_

_-fine_

And so, Nick put on is uniform and went out on his way to the ZPD like he always did but there was a different atmosphere now, everyone around him was either looking at the sudden and magnificent ship above them and talking about it and in fact, not even himself felt the same, there was certainly an electricity in the air.

However, he finally arrived to the ZPD as usual where he would first chill out with Benjamin Clawhauser and then would head to the main area where they would receive their instructions for the day.

“Hey Ben… How’s it going?”

“Did you saw it?” the cheetah asked energetically.

“Who hasn’t though? Been trying to not think too much about it”.

“What’s your opinion? Do you think they’re friendly? Hostile? Do you- Oh! There comes Judy!”

Nick turned back to see Judy who, as him, had a different face than normal… except that Nick was at least trying to smile like he had always done.

“Morning Nick, Ben”.

“Good Morning Hopps! Have you seen the thing in the sky?”

“Yes, Ben, we have and honestly that’s kind of mentally exhausting so we can discuss this later, fine?”

“Oh okay, yeah Bogo has something to say about that… so see you!”

The duo left the reception again trying to not bring up that conversation however both of them knew that they were certainly not going to avoid it forever.

“Maybe we’re exaggerating about this,” said Nick “Maybe this won’t be that bad”.

“You mean that they’re friendly?” asked Judy.

“I mean that maybe there’s not even a ‘they’ you know, why we can’t just assume that it’s just a spaceship?”

“And have you seen a spaceship suddenly appearing out of nowhere? Even I it was just a ship, someone had to brought it here right?”

“Well yeah you got a point”.

“And I see your point, maybe they’re friendly, maybe they’re not or could even be a mix of both”.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll feel better if we try not to think about it”.

“Agreed”.

When they entered the main room they found almost every member there that was talking about the same thing: A big gray thing in the sky that was either kill them all or save them.

They both looked at each other and giggled ‘cause it was going to be a long day.

After a few minutes Bogo arrived and the room stopped talking and took and sit, going completely silent in seconds, after the buffalo checked some files he had in hand, he addressed to the audience.

“Today… at the 0200 hours an unidentified flying object was spotted right above Savanah, whether if it’s friendly or not we still don’t know, the government will take care of that. As for us… we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing”.

A bit confusing but they couldn’t complain, Bogo gave the tasks for the officers with many of them being trivial things until it came to Judy & Nick.

“There are reports of major traffic jams across Zootopia where people are leaving in an exodus, search around and try to control it”.

They left ready to do their jobs now that they’ve learned not to ask questions after how several other shifts ended. However Judy asked Nick to get in the car and wait for her since she needed to tell Bogo something.

Nick went into the car waiting for her partner while thinking in many stuff, well not that many actually, all of them were related to the big elephant in the room: The spaceship. He told to himself that maybe ‘that’ –whatever it was- wasn’t evil and that it wasn’t gonna to destroy them but honestly that was just something for him to feel better.

Maybe he should visit Finnick again soon but if Bogo was going to be strict with the usual routine then he wouldn’t have time for it, maybe he should spend more time close with Judy, while everyone kept telling them they were cute together as a couple, he still hadn’t thought labelling their relationship and did not wanted to do it. In fact, he could even visit his-

“I’m here Nick” Judy entered the car.

“Did you notice that he just said ‘search around’? No coordinates or a near place, just search”.

“Yeah, I did notice, I wasn’t asking that but I think I know where I can find these traffic jams”.

After Judy started the driving as usual, Nick said in a cheerfully tone despite all of what has happened.

“You gonna let me drive one time you know?”

“Maybe, one time, when I decide to let you do it anyway”.

There was a pause with both of them still looking at the object in the sky wondering what was going to happen.

“What did you asked to Bogo?” asked Nick now with a more serious tone.

“Heh, I… I am leaving tomorrow to see my family, I asked him to give me the day off with this thing on the sky, I’m… kinda scared”.

“Aw carrots, you don’t have to, things are going to be fine in a few weeks… Actually I’ve wanted to see someone too with this thing above us, someone that isn’t Finnick. By the way, I’m going to give you a lift on the way to the station then”.

“Why?”

“Consider it a simple favor, nothing else” he said smiling.

They continue to drive for a few more minutes before entering a highway, there they could see the mess that was going on and along with other officers they tried to do their best in keeping control.

* * *

In the Tuesday morning the day started… different, a lot different, the spaceship was still there but nothing had happened, it was the only thing that was in the news, internet and it was everyone’s topic for conversations, Judy decided not to think about it, instead she was just getting dressed in her farm attire to visit her family.

For Nick it was pretty much the same, don’t think in whatever that ship was and get ready for the job like always, after going to the ZPD he got orders by Bogo to just patrol the city in the lookout for people who may take advantage of the situation and ‘to be careful’, then he went outside to their car where Judy was already waiting for him

“So you’re thinking four steps ahead eh carrots?” he asked with his usual charisma.

“Maybe, hop in”.

And so, Nick finally went to the driver’s seat and started the engine beginning to drive, on the ride one of them always had something to say, from the major news to maybe the tiny dot of dust in the other’s one clothes.

“It’s kind of weird that nothing has happened,” said Judy “Lionheart said that they were trying to make contact and building and landing site but yet nothing, it doesn’t make much sense”.

“Maybe it’s just a ship after all” said Nick.

The topic was never addressed as the rest was Judy telling what she would do in Bunnyburrow and that she was going to return tomorrow, and while she tried for Nick to tell her who he was going to visit, the fox decided to remain ambiguous.

“We’ve arrived” said Nick at the front of the station where there was a lack of people.

“Yeah, thanks,” Judy then gave Nick a gentle kiss in the forehead before leaving the car “Don’t be dumb, fox” she said smiling.

“Keep being sly, bunny,” the fox smirked “Also keep your phone charged in case of something”.

“Of course. Bye Nick, see ya”.

“Bye Judy”.

* * *

Driving back to his main duty, Nick just decided to only focus in the job, however while driving the car suddenly turned off forcing Nick to hit on the brakes, as he couldn’t control the vehicle, ending up in the middle of the street and then another car coming from behind that crashed with him.

He tried to quickly leave the car and check what just happened but he had just realized that he couldn’t open the doors nor the windows, he was literally locked in his own car, he checked outside the windows and could hear a lot of car brakes and crashing sounds meaning that he was not the only one. However he quickly pulled his gun out and shot three times at the window until breaking it, after cleaning the sharp edges he finally got out only to see the chaos around him.

He was definitely not the only and it was definitely not his engine that failed, he could even see a helicopter in the distance that came crashing down, he checked his phone only to confirm what he thought: An electromagnetic pulse that killed the energy in the city, and there was only one think he could be thinking.

Judy.

* * *


	3. The Start of Two Journeys

Back in the train station Judy managed to get on a train with way to Bunnyburrow before it left, while she was curious about why the ship had just remained in place for two days now it didn’t really bother her, this would mean that maybe the ‘visitors’ weren’t hostile, if they were they would have already done something.

But since it was a topic that everyone wanted to know about but nobody wanted to even think about, she tried to do the same by listening to some of her playlist to go along.

However, in the middle of the journey, rig the music abruptly stopped and so did the train causing her and other passengers to fall over due to the inertia, when she got up she tried to check everyone else was okay and looked outside the windows to see what happened, maybe the train would restart in a few minutes but why did her MP4 shut down at the same moment?

* * *

Nick was sitting on the walkway wondering why did this happened, he couldn’t call anyone for help and it wouldn’t matter if he could because no one was going to arrive, no firefighters, no medics or even hospitals that would take care of the people. He didn’t knew the range of the EMP but he did knew that he only left the station minutes ago and that if it affected this area then Judy would probably be stuck in the train.

He honestly didn’t know what to do first, maybe return to his house and think the things through would help… So he did exactly that, going back to his apartment was actually painful since he could see the distress of everyone around by the fact that they had just lost the most precious, beautiful, and definitely valuable thing on earth: Technology.

When he arrived to his apartment where, obviously there was no elevator, he entered and took just a few sandwich breads to have along the way, he didn’t wanted to grab all of the food he had –which wasn’t much but it was something- since it wasn’t the apocalypse, he would definitely return later. He decided to change his police uniform for his usual attire, since there wasn’t any police now he was pretty sure that there was no “shift”, however he kept his gun, it freed him from the car and he knew that the first thing that happens in a blackout is that criminals get more freedom.

A blackout! Of course, right now was approximately 10:00am-12:00am and since every technology died there was no way of certainly knowing the hour, by the time the sun goes down Zootopia would be nothing but darkness in the shape of a city.

After backing up ‘everything’ in a simple backpack, he now wondered what should be his next step, maybe it should be definitely finding and helping Judy, the only problem was that he couldn’t exactly know where the train was located when the EMP strike. He was definitely used to working in pairs and never alone so right now he needed to find someone that could help him…

Maybe Finnick? Please not Zachy.

* * *

Judy checked most of the passengers trying to see if they were okay but on this routine she discovered that everyone’s phone was dead, making her realize the reality of the situation, that an EMP hit the city and that all electricity stopped, right now she was worried about Nick or where he could be but she couldn’t focus on that since there was currently a crowd desperately wanting to get out of the train.

They were in the middle of Rainforest District with only a few minutes away from entering Tundratown so even if they could get out they would only walk out directly to a certain fall, however they couldn’t stay here forever, they need to get out but that wasn’t going to be possible with a bunch of animals starting to panic.

* * *

After a long walk, Nick found the van again in the same spot a bit surprised that it was there since he and Finnick usually always started early in the morning, he knocked the door and heard the only sound that would make worse the day.

“Finnick! Finn, are you there?!” shouted the muffled voice of Zachy from the inside.

“No,” said Nick annoyed “It’s me, Nick… without the ‘Fin’”.

“Oh, it’s you, of course it would be you, why wouldn’t you- I don’t care who it is! Just help me get out of here!”

Nick remembered that the door handles or the windows didn’t open and that probably he was stuck there since the EMP, but geez, does he live there? Why does he have to be in there every time he comes, he actually felt bad for how he treated Judy the first time they met after seeing someone like Zachy.

However he went to the front of the van warning him to stay back and with one shot, he weakened the window without fully breaking it but one kick was enough to shatter the crystal and free Zachy who after cleaning the edges he quickly gets out of the car and hugs Nick.

“Oh! Thanks, thank you so much!” he says hugging him tightly.

“Ok, ok! Stop!” the hyena lets go “Where’s Finnick? Again”.

“Finnick! Right! He was supposed to go for something to start our day and I don’t know where he is! Can you call him or something?”

“Dude… an EMP happened a few hours ago, all the electricity is gone, that’s why you couldn’t escape”.

Zachy’s face went blank with a mouth wide open.

“Eh, he doesn’t has a phone anyway,” he returned to his charming self “But still, do you know where he could be? Where did he usually go when you guys were working?”

“You’re telling me you’ve been working with him for 5 months and you still don’t know?”

“Yes! And he usually tells me where he’s going but recently he just says that he must go and I wait for him in the van! Sometimes he brings something or maybe that we are ready to start but of course I trust him!”

There is a small pause before Zachy continues to talk.

“So do you know where he could be or not? I have to find him”.

“I also have to search for someone; in fact I came to here to look for Finnick’s help!”

“And why would you think he’s gonna help you?”

“I… I don’t know… but you said I should come back!”

“Yes I did, but that wasn’t implying any EMP’s or whatever the hell it happened!”

The two let out a sigh until Zachy came out with a “brilliant” idea.

“Hey, what if we help each other to find our respective partners?”

“Huh?”

“You help me find Finnick and then you help me find…” he said waiting for a response but Nick was definitely not going to say it.

“Someone,” was what he said “Why should I work with you anyway?”

“Because first, you need me, second, I need you, third, because I am handsome”.

“Yeah, that last point just reminds me why I shouldn’t work with you”.

“C’mon Nicky! It’ll be fun” he said with a tone like if everything was normal and this was another day for him

“Fine,” said the fox with a grunt “But only if we search for _my_ partner first”.

“What?! Why?”

“Because unlike Finnick, I know where she is”.

“Oh, it’s the rabbit, of course it’s her,” he said realizing the pronoun making Nick blush even though the hyena didn’t care about this “But do you really know where she is?”

“Yes, I left her in the train station this morning, after a few minutes the EMP strike and I’m sure she’s stuck there”.

“Yikes, talk about bad luck; we’re never going to find her, we don’t even know where the train is… Can we go for Finnick?”

Now the fox was mad but he didn’t exactly knew why, maybe because of how little this hyena cared for someone Nick did care, or maybe because he knew that what he said was kinda true, they didn’t know where the train was during the EMP, they could be searching in one area and Judy could be somewhere else.

“Look, **Zachary,** for now I’ll follow you, we’ll look for Finnick first but you have to promise me that once we find him you’ll help me find Judy. Do we have a deal?” he said reaching out for a handshake

“If you stop calling me Zachary, we have a deal”.

“As long as you don’t call me Nicky” he said and both of them did a handshake but in the inside neither wanted to be with the other and would wish for anyone else.

* * *

A rhino and a hippo both were trying to open the doors in the train once everyone had calmed to make space, however the doors were not opening enough for anyone but a mouse to fit –and there wasn’t any mice- so the other remaining alternative and with someone like a rhino they were easily able to smash the back of the train and after removing the sharp edges all the passengers could finally get out.

But here came the tricky part for Judy: In the lane of the train only two animals could fit wide without losing balance, a third one would probably cause the other two to fall, and she didn’t know what to do.

One option would be returning to Zootopia like most of the people were currently doing and the other option was following her plan and go to Bunnyburrow with her family.

If she returned to the city she would have Nick by her side, he was clever and sly and would definitely know what to do in a situation like this, he gave her a feeling of protection that she hadn’t felt before. However she promised her family that she would return due to the aliens’ situation and he was 100% sure that they were waiting for her and that they were definitely wondering where she was right now and since the phones were now useless she couldn’t just simply call them.

It was a tough choice since the path she took was going to define how she would live through this chaos.

“Sir! Excuse me sir!” she quickly called for the rhino that smashed the window after everyone had already left “Help me get on top of the train”.

The rhino looked confused.

“I need to go somewhere else” since everyone was returning back to the Zootopia station she needed to go to the opposite direction so with the help of the rhino she climbed on top of the train and headed straight back to his home, to Bunnyburrow, a journey that would only cost her… maybe a thousand miles.

* * *


	4. Loving Thoughts

“So, where are we going first?” asked Zachy to Nick after they started to walk through the middle of the street since there was no more cars.

“It depends of the job you guys were currently doing, when we made the popsicles then we would start in the ice cream shop, sometimes we used rain water to sell it… What were you doing?”

“Uhh… The problem is that recently we haven’t hustling…”

“Then what have you been doing? Just tell me”.

“We… we have been stealing stylishly”

Nick face-palmed sighing.

“I don’t care what you guys’ been doing,” said the fox “But if that’s the case then I can’t help you Zachy, he could be anywhere then”.

There was a small and awkward pause between them until Zachy suddenly switched the topic

“I’m hungry” he said.

“I only brought these sandwiches… which are mine!”

“Nah man, stay with your bread I was thinking on snacks”.

“Snacks?”

“You know, Doritos? Those snacks, if we take advantage of the situation maybe we’ll sneak one or two”.

“If you’re gonna do it then stop talking in ‘we’ because I said that I’m not doing that again”.

“C’mon Nicky- Nick, without the y” he said quickly correcting himself.

Nick was definitely going to lose it with this guy but he couldn’t complain after all without the electricity, most of the food would be rotten in probably two days or so, so what Zachy was proposing could easily be a smart move since he wasn’t just going to survive in a sandwich diet.

* * *

When Judy left Nick at the station it was approximately 9:00-10:00am but with everything that happened the time flew quickly and he could determine by the shadow that it was maybe 1:30-3:00pm. She’d never thought this morning that by midday she would have to calculate the hour by the shadow and sun position instead of just checking it on her phone.

Now she was walking in the train lane on her way to Bunnyburrow through the four districts of Zootopia, she was currently one mile away from entering the Rainforest District and she was nor realizing that this was maybe not the brightest idea.

Another thought that was crossing her mind was that everyone and everything was going to be like it was before, the way they travel, the communication and probably everything they took for granted.

If she only could send Nick one last message.

* * *

Most of the stores were already done by the time Zachy decided to heist and while Nick was happy on the outside that the hyena couldn’t get things to go his way, he was getting frustrated on the inside that the chances of getting supplies were lowering and lowering.

That was of course until they found a store like many others, there were people in the middle of a robbery so they both needed to be discrete about their presence, however while gathering the beloved Dorito snacks they were surprised by the two bears who initially started the heist.

“Why are you here?” asked one of the bears with a deep voice that could shiver anyone but neither of the canines trembled.

“You know,” said Zachy in his charming self “Just maybe collecting stuff we may need along the way…”

One of the bears showed his teeth and they both had intentions to start a fight until Nick pulled out his gun though he did not had any intentions of killing anyone. The two bears just casually walked out of the scene and Nick & Zachy continue to grab a maximum of 7 bags of several snacks in Nick’s backpack and 4 in Zachy’s hands.

Since neither of them knew where either Finnick or Judy were, they were going to return to the van to keep the provisions there and have a more civilized discussion as where to look.

“I can’t believe you actually did that!” said Zachy excited

“I wasn’t going to shoot him though, just intimidating you know?” replied Nick.

“Yeah, I know, I know but- wow just- I was not expecting it”.

Nick smiled and actually he was surprised by this because he hadn’t smiled since the train station when he said goodbye to Judy. He remembered everything about their final conversation with such detail like the surroundings or the tone of the things what he said _“Keep being sly, bunny”_ actually this gave him a little bit of hope because he knew that someone like Judy was not going to give up easily despite being stuck in a train.

_“Don’t be dumb, fox”_ Of course not, he was definitely not going to be dumb, especially in a situation like this; despite being teamed up with someone like Zachy he would try to think things through before acting.

“Alright here we are” said Zachy after arriving to the van “Let’s go through the broken window”.

They went through the window that Nick previously shattered and they unloaded the11 bag of snacks in the back of the van, since they couldn’t open or close any door the only way to get out was through the window so they would be sure that nobody would be interested in an useless van parked in a random alley with a broken window.

“Now we have something eat” said Zachy proud of what they did.

“They’re just candy treats,” Nick replied “And that’s not our main goal… for both of us”.

Zachy lowered his head.

“I know, this is gonna help us but it definitely won’t help us find our… can I ask you a small question?” asked the hyena

“Is it about Judy?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if you’ll be bothered about the question so…”

Nick didn’t felt sure since everything he knew about Zachy so far meant that it would be a 100% annoying question maybe about something offensive but since it was the first time he saw the hyena act like this he decided to give it a go.

“Go ahead”.

“What is she? I mean, friend, partner, crush… girlfriend?”

Yep, he knew a question like that would pop up, it was awkward, annoying making Nick blush for a moment, but he was honestly asking it without any kind of teasing like he did in their first encounter.

“Well…” Nick replied while reaching for a sandwich from his bag “She’s not a partner, that’s for sure, we haven’t established mutual love so she’s not my girlfriend and…”.

Pause.

“I mean, do you love her?” asked Zachy again.

Another blush by Nick.

“Platonic? I don’t know I care for her and I’ve felt something sometimes but I don’t label her as crush- I don’t know exactly”.

“That’s okay bud… We will continue next morning”.

“Wait what, why?”

“If we go looking now for either Judy or Finnick we’ll run out of sunlight and I wouldn’t want to be out there in the dark after and EMP”.

“But what time is it?”

“We’re getting closer to the 5:00pm or we are already in 5:00pm, it’s hard to tell”.

Despite Zachy’s attitude previously, Nick had to admit that he was right, the only thing that would give them light in the dark was a candle and that wouldn’t work at all. In only two hours everything was going to be pitching black and being inside the van would be maybe the safest thing.

“Wish we could have a board game to pass the time” said Zachy “Also five snacks for you and five for me, the 11th one will be mine since you have your sandwiches”.

And so the two canines just wandered around the van without many things to do waiting for the sun to go down and end this crazy day.

* * *

The sun was already setting down, and the surrounding were going darker and darker with every minute and Judy was still 1,3 miles away from leaving Tundratown, despite the technologic mechanisms that helped the weather in Zootopia had stopped there was still a bit of cold around.

In a few hours the weather on Zootopia would be all mixed up and the animals that lived in a certain district were definitely going to have a rougher. Judy kept walking through the line of the train and she was starting to regret her choice, maybe returning with Nick was the best idea after all but she couldn’t turn back now since the distance now was certainly longer, plus now Nick could be anywhere, if she had returned to the station instantly she would’ve found him more easily.

Now she was starting to think that her parents would’ve understand what happened and that she couldn’t have arrived on time but Nick could probably be wondering where she was or why she didn’t returned.

Trying not to think about it she continue his journey walking a bit faster so the night wouldn’t caught her whole and looking at the spaceship above her… She knew they did this.

* * *

**7:30pm**

There was complete darkness outside and until your eyes adjusted to the view you couldn’t see anything except the shape of the buildings.

“Nicky- Nick! You gotta see this!” shouted Zachy from the outside because he was curious about the darkness.

“Now what?” asked Nick.

“Remember how this morning there was a ship on the sky? Look at the sky now”.

Nick did as the hyena said and what he saw left him speechless in a good way, the cleanest sky he could ever see was right above him with thousands of the brightest stars; he heard a loud ‘thump’ coming from the van with Zachy reaching his hand out.

“Hop in” he said sitting on the top of the van helping to get up.

Nick and Zachy sit there looking at the sky filled with beautiful stars.

“One thing had to be good among all this mess huh?”

He was right, but it was only gonna last for this night but if only he could be seeing this with someone else instead of Zachy.

_Judy where are you?_ Nick Thought.

_Finnick where’d you go?_ Was what Zachy thought while he rested his head in Nick’s shoulder with the fox not being bothered by this.

* * *

Despite everything in the city was darkness the light of the moon and the stars gave enough light to navigate more calmly.

_Nick please, be safe_ thought Judy while going through the Tundratown-Sahara tunnel


	5. Every Coastal City... Gone

Nick and Zachy slept inside the van with some blankets that were already there, when Nick woke up he found that Zachy was already awake outside; couldn’t he stay quiet in one place?

“What are you doing?” asked Nick sticking his head out of the window when he saw Zachy walking around.

“Hey you! You’re finally awake, I’ve got two things to tell you,” the hyena replied “First, we need water supplies and I don’t where we can get it, second… uh… we’re not going to be able to find Judy”.

“What do you mean?”

“Look, at midnight I realized that we should definitely find liquid and-” he pulled out a small soda can and gave it to Nick “Anyways I found a machine with a few sodas left, I broke the glass took two of them and then I saw a lot of people coming from a certain direction which ended up being the station… And Judy was nowhere to be seen”.

Nick looked confused.

“Let me see if I get it, you went to steal sodas and ended up going to the train station and you saw the ex-passengers returning without seeing Judy?”

The hyena nodded.

“In total darkness?!”

“Not really, my eyes were comfortable with the light and I could spot a few faces but I didn’t saw a single bunny shape, and I was asking if someone saw a female bunny and a rhino told me she went into the opposite direction”.

Nick understood everything but he was confused, why would Zachy go in the middle of the night to search for Judy without him? Was it real? Or was it just an excuse of him to force Nick into give up all hope and find Finnick? Maybe it was the truth but if it was… Then why Judy would go to the opposite direction? Unless…

“How do I know you’re not lying?” asked Nick

“Excuse me?!” Zachy replied insulted “I went to a train station in the night after an EMP looking for your friend and you think I’m lying?!”

“That’s my problem, why would you care so suddenly?”

“Because I… because you two solved a case! Maybe we would have more chances in finding Finnick”.

Only a good liar can spot a bad liar, Zachy was more of a thief than a hustler despite participating in a few hustling for five months but Nick had been doing it since he was twelve and that hyena wasn’t fooling anyone and now he understood why Finnick said that he was not good… because he wasn’t.

However he didn’t chose to interrogate him since now Nick was suspicious of him but in a good way.

“What are your plans for today?” asked Zachy and immediately a sense of nostalgia and memories surge through both of them. For Nick it was what Judy always said before starting the weekend and for Zachy it was what he asked Finnick before starting the day and the last time he said was when-

“Wait Nick I know! I know!” shouted the hyena excited.

“Calm down, you know what?”

“I know where Finnick could be! I asked him yesterday what was going to be our plan for the day and he just told me ‘Rainforest, I’ll be back’, now we have a clue”.

Nick couldn’t help but smile since Finnick was also a friend of him.

“And I think where Judy is” the fox said.

“Where?”

* * *

**8:15am**

Judy had finally arrived… and saying she was tired is not enough, she was thirsty, hungry her paws hurt due to all the constant walking but seeing the Bunnyburrow sign just made her heart bounce in excitement and after 10 more minutes she arrived the small station where despite nobody was there she find a bench where she sit there that felt like the best feeling of relief in her entire life.

After spending there a solid 20 minutes she continues to find her house along with her family but as soon as she got up she started to feel dizzy and with no warning, she passed out.

* * *

“You’re saying she went back to his hometown?” asked Zachy after Nick gave him a full explanation with the fox nodding.

“Are we going to Rainforest District then?” asked the fox.

“We need to get water supplies” replied the hyena after thinking it for a while.

They took one snack each and tried to look if any stores were open and with something they could grab but most of it were completely empty with the things that wouldn’t work since the electricity was down like bags of rice; however Zachy knew that people just didn’t know how to survive without the precious technology and that rice was easily cook-able even after an EMP.

While they took more candy like chocolate they also took some vegetables or fruits they found in the floor in the corner of some store but still no water.

“Why can’t we just search for more soda?” asked Nick starting to feel the thirst.

“Because our bodies also function with water you smarty”.

“We can always boil it”

“If we have a pot of course” replied Zachy also tired.

“One more store?” asked Nick.

“Two more”.

* * *

Judy woke up with her vision a bit blurred but in a surrounding that was familiar, it was her home! She remembered just losing consciousness in the station and now she was on lying on her bed comfortably after walking through miles.

She heard voices outside the room approaching to her by getting louder and louder and when the persons entered the room her heart almost stopped. They were her parents.

“Mom! Daddy!” she rushed out of bed giving them a big and tight hug and them giving it back like the day she left the town and into Zootopia “I am so happy to see you” and indeed she was, knowing that her choice of leaving everything behind paid off in the end.

“Judy, what happened?!” asked her dad.

“The phone didn’t work, the electricity went out” said her mom anguished.

“The cars aren’t working either”.

“We found you in the station lying down”.

“So we brought you here. Are you okay?”

“Dad, mom,” said Judy after their parents stopped talking “I need water and food… I am really tired right now”.

“That’s alright sweetheart, we’ll bring you everything you need” said her mom quickly leaving the room.

“Judy…” said his dad “If the electricity is down, how did you came here?”

Judy slightly smiled and said what she did

“Just walking”.

“What?! You came all the way from the city to here just walking?!”

She nodded.

“I really need a rest… Is everyone okay?” said Judy.

“Of course we are! There were a bit of bumps but we’re all okay, you go to bed, we’ll be right back”.

His father left the room as well and Judy returned back to bed where she started to think in many things but specially it was definitely where Nick was or what he could be doing, she was also wondering that if the EMP was something caused by the aliens then what were they planning? Probably leaving them defenseless but if so… leaving them defenseless for what? What are they planning ahead?

A few minutes after Judy’s mom arrived with blueberries and a cup of water and gave it to her daughter and moved on.

“Thank you for coming back” said her mom quietly and Judy gave her a last hug before Mss. Hopps leaved the room again.

* * *

Jackpot! At the end Zachy and Nick did found 4 bottles of water one that was half full; they stored it all in Nick’s bag and were heading back to the van to organize the supplies and their journey to the Rainforest District

However when they were walking and friendly chatting, they felt something below them like some vibrations on the floor and instantly both of them knew that something was off.

A small tremble was enough to confirm what they both thought: An earthquake.

“Nick run!” shouted Zachy and immediately they both stormed out into a close street alley since they were only two blocks away from the van, they rushed to the corners where they both adopted a fetal position covering their heads as the tremble began to intensify more and more.

They could hear crashing windows, rubble falling and people screaming in the distance so they covered their ears to cancel all that noise that were making them anguished and the quake only seemed to get worse and worse every second with no signs of stopping.

But eventually and no matter how rough it looked the earthquake after 7 minutes, stopped and the two canines were able to get out of the alley only to see the mass destruction in the city, entire buildings had fallen with only some rubble left and most of the street being split in half with a crater not too deep. It was a miracle that the building next to where they were hiding didn’t fall over them.

They wanted to say something but somehow couldn’t until Zachy spoke after a few seconds.

“We need to move”.

“We need to find Judy” Nick replied.

“What? Remember our deal?”

The fox looked at him with an angry look but he was more worried than angry.

“I can’t help you Zachy, I need to find Judy”.

“But you said she was at her hometown! It’s over 200 miles!”

“If she did it, I have to”.

“You can’t! The quake probably destroyed the train line! We need to go for Finnick! It was our deal and we need to stay together because we need each other!”

Nick walked away knowing that Zachy was right and that probably all the rubble would make it impossible to go find Judy but the thought of losing her was bigger than keeping a deal or even bigger than an earthquake.

* * *

However for Judy and her family it wasn’t much, sure the quake scared all of them but since it’s a town without too many big structures the damage wasn’t too big just a bunch of markets flipped over.

The young rabbit quickly hurried once the shaking was over to check over her entire family if everyone was okay and right after she went outside trying to do the same with everyone. Despite not having the right instruments she tried to help and take care of everyone around but she knew she couldn’t so she tried to encourage a few people to do it as well and indeed worked, soon the town was taking care and helping everyone all around.

They couldn’t do much but the few they did like sharing water was enough.

“Mom, Dad, I want you two to stay her I’ll go back to the house” said Judy.

“What? But you said we should stick together” said her dad.

“Yes, I know but I want to make everyone is okay just in case of a replica happens, don’t worry stay together and this exact same spot so I know where to find you”.

After a brief discussion Judy went back to her home with bandages people were bringing from their houses and sharing among everyone, since they were a huge family it was obvious that they needed a huge house. Judy first checked a few members of her family, since they were over 200 it wasn’t easy. Judy went to the last floor in the house since it was where the actual bedrooms were, there was a big window in that house looked directly to Zootopia –or what was left of it- and it was slightly visible from there and what she saw left her shocked knowing that this was not over. A large wave approaching to the city, ready to tear it down.

* * *

“Here, take this,” said Nick handing a paper bag to Zachy “Give it to Finnick when you find him”.

Zachy inspected the paper bag when found a simple chocolate donut, when he looked up he saw that Nick was already getting away, that fox was very stubborn and saying that he didn’t felt anything for Judy were pure lies.

However the hyena smelled something, ‘beach water’ along with a strong wind.

“Nick, come back!!” he shouted. “Come back!! Tsunami!”

The fox turned around to hear Zachy and when he heard the word ‘tsunami’ he looked up and he saw a 40m high wave coming through the already broken buildings in his direction so he started to run back to where Zachy was.

“Zach!! Go to the van! Go, go, go!”

Zachy was indeed going to the van since the buildings around them weren’t high enough but for some reason he couldn’t move, he was going to wait for Nick but the wave was approaching very fast.

“Nick c’mon run faster!” shouted Zachy with no intentions on leaving him behind.

“Go to the van!”

When Nick finally was close enough to Zachy, the hyena grabbed his hand and both of them quickly run to their shelter as the tsunami was even closer, they reached the alley and quickly entered through the window where they sit on the front seats.

“Put on your seatbelt! Put on your goddam seatbelt!” commanded Zachy and Nick quickly did it “Now hold my hand tightly… and don’t let go”.

As Nick did this the sound of the giant wave was getting louder and louder until it was right above them and with their eyes closed they endured the impact.


	6. After the Tsunami

The tsunami attacked Zootopia and the wave had slowed down but it certainly hasn’t stopped at all, it was smaller but that didn’t meant less deadly or slower and it was roughly about 5 meters tall.

Judy panicked and quickly rushed down to warn everyone, to go the higher ground and stay there. Telling her family that a tsunami was coming was enough to make everyone panic but also enough to make them go higher, but of course that didn’t meant everyone

“Dad! Mom!” she shouted hurrying to the place where they left and quickly found them “We gotta go c’mon! Look!”

The three of them looked behind them seeing the wave that was rapidly approaching.

“We gotta go to the refuge nearby!” said his dad.

“What?!” exclaimed Judy.

“We won’t make it back to the house, just hurry!”

The three bunnies ran to a refuge, a bunker that was built in cases of emergency after the Night Howlers incident that was approximately 50 meters away from where they were, many other animals were also hurrying to enter and desperately to close the door.

It was hard since every time someone entered that person demanded for the door to close but there was another person outside who insisted for not to close it.

And now this was the case for Judy, the tsunami was approaching fast and it wasn’t waiting for anyone, for her was easy, she had trained for years how to handle these situations and she solved a case with many exciting moments but her parents didn’t and it was starting to show.

“C’mon keep running!” said Judy with now being 20 meters away from the main door with a cheetah in the door making signs to hurry up since they were the last one.

Judy was the first one to enter and took the cheetah’s place in holding the door, reaching her hand out for her mom to catch. While she was able to strongly pull her mom inside, her father didn’t have the same luck as the tsunami engulfed him whole with Judy shouting a scream of horror calling for her dad as the cheetah grabbed the two bunnies and fully closing the door with a bit of water entering the bunker but not entirely.

* * *

The hit of the wave knocked out the hustling duo however Nick slowly woke up only to find themselves upside down, they didn’t know where they were but it was if something was sure it was that they should get out of there and continue.

Nick looked next to him and Zachy was not there, he panicked at first but calmed down a bit when he saw him in the back of the van still unconscious.

“Zach?” asked Nick hoping for a reply, he could see that he was breathing so that was good but he needed to first untie the seatbelt that was currently locked.

He used a fragment of the mirror that was broken and managed to cut out the leather and after falling headfirst into the ground and recovering he checked Zachy and found that his heart was also beating at an average rate so it was good but the next step should be leaving the van and finding out where were they.

Apparently they landed in a safe place but that didn’t stop the van from screeching with every move Nick made, he finished on breaking what was left of the front window and carried Zachy and himself away from the van and into the outside, apparently they were in the top of a tree... in Rainforest District, the district they wanted to be but not the exact place. From the looks of it they landed in what previously was a house since it was now completely destroyed.

From this point of view a large part of the Rainforest could be seen with only a small area of Savannah Central.

“Beautiful view isn’t it?” said a weak Zachy just recovering.

“So now is when you decided to wake up?” asked Nick.

“Heh, thanks for pulling me out of the van I thought you hated me”.

“Well, if you die I won’t have anyone else to hate” said the fox smirking however not in his usual tone but rather one that was trying to block everything that just happened.

“How did we survive that?”

“I have no idea; I just know that we’re on the place we wanted to be”.

“At least on the district but we still have to figure out how we get off this tree”.

The two just stood there looking at the rest of the city that was a still flooded below them.

“This would be a beautiful view… two days ago” said Nick after a long pause.

“Couldn’t agree more,” replied Zachy “How curious, first they take our electricity so that we would be defenseless against what happens in their second attack which is the earthquake followed by the tsunami, so if they plan to continue then this attack would leave us defenseless against the third one and-”.

“Hold on, hold on,” interrupted Nick “You’re going too far, how do you know that it was the intruders who did these two… attacks or waves or whatever? Or how do you know there will be more?”

“Because Nicky,” the hyena clears his throat “Nick, an EMP doesn’t work like this, it should have returned, and I may be a street robber but I’m not stupid, Zootopia isn’t in the earth major fault lines… it isn’t even close to water. I feel that this could be happening everywhere”.

“That’s just your supposition Zachy, you can’t know if this is true”.

There was another long pause.

“I…” said Nick “Thank you for waiting for me… I thought you hated me”.

Zachy laughed like he did before the arrival of the intruders.

“Well, do you think you, Finnick and I would be a hustling trio without you?”

“Wait, so when you said that you wanted to make a trio with me you wer-”.

“Of course I was serious! You solved a case, saved Zootopia and you fooled the law for over two decades, why wouldn’t I want to work with you?!”

“But I didn’t do that on my own…”

“Oh right, Judy…Even if you don’t believe it I gotta tell you that I know how you’re feeling also I guess the quake and the wave broke down the bridge, maybe you can’t go”.

Another long pause.

“Look at the sun,” said Zachy “It’s around 4-5pm we should stay here for tonight”.

Definitely, the day they just faced today was one of the craziest day in their life ever, both of them really needed a break and were waiting for all of this to be over.

* * *

Judy couldn’t believe it neither could her mom; both of them witnessed in front of them how someone they loved got carried away by a wave with nothing they could do to stop it. Now they were stuck along with several other animals in an underground bunker with the only thing they could do was hoping that the rest of the family was safe.

However the bunker wasn’t entirely effective either, there was a very tiny stream of water was coming from the main gate so they didn’t know if they were actually going to survive there.

But after a few hours, nothing serious happened and only a water puddle was made and everyone was wondering if they could finally get out.

“If the water is still out there we’ll all drown!” said Judy trying to keep everything under control but it wasn’t enough.

People were getting more desperate and anxious the longer they stayed there so Judy had no choice but to open the gate of the refuge and free everyone finding, to her surprise, that the threat of the tsunami was gone but the memories of it weren’t.

The first thing Judy wanted to do was cry with even one tear coming down her cheek, but she knew this wasn’t the time to cry.

“We gotta go back home” Judy said to her mom with sorrow.

Mss. Hopps just quietly nodded also feeling the loss of her husband.

When Judy and her mom arrived to their house they both felt an enormous relief when they find out that nobody in the family got hurt, only bruises left from the quake but nobody was affected by the tsunami… Sad that we can’t say the same for the house status.

* * *

It was nearly midnight and Nick was still awake trying to find a comfortable position or just looking at the city below them seeing how the flood was retreating.

“Can’t sleep?” asked Zachy who managed to sleep but he was used to working at night.

Nick shook her head.

“Me either,” continue Zachy standing up “But that’s because I’m used to. Is something bothering you?”

“Maybe,” replied the fox “My brain is like splitting apart, one part is stressed about a possible earthquake, the other one blames me for letting Finnick go, another one hates sleeping on the floor and the last one can’t stop thinking about…”

“I know… not that I can stop thinking about Finnick too but come here”.

Nick looked at Zachy.

“No, no, _come_ here” the hyena demanded and Nick got close to him.

“Closer,” Nick did it again “Closer” again “Just a little bit closer” the fox did it until they were literally side-to-side.

“Now, let’s lay down” Zachy demanded again and they both did.

The hyena embraced Nick tightly hugging him with both of his arms pulling even closer and gently rubbing his head making the fox a bit uncomfortable but only a bit.

“There won’t be any more earthquakes since Zootopia is not on a fault line,” said Zachy in a calm voice “Finnick going missing is not your fault, he would’ve left no matter what nobody knew that an EMP would happen and you couldn’t have done nothing to change it, sleeping on the floor is nice as long as you have someone to cuddle with and your rabbit is the most smart and clever cop in Zootopia, she is probably better than the two of us”.

As Zachy was speaking Nick was becoming more and more relaxed and the cuddling was being less awkward.

“I think you deserve this donut” said the hyena handing him the bag.

“You still have it?! Never mind, I can’t take it, I told Judy when she buy it that I wouldn’t eat it since it was originally for Finnick”.

“So is this donut for someone you care about?”

“Yes if you put in those terms… yeah”.

“Forget it, let’s sleep for once” said the hyena and continued the cuddling until both of them were fully asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit too hard to write but... what matters is that I finished,thank you all for reading and see you soon


	7. Hurtful Revelations

The fox woke up still being hugged by Zachy and the moment he realized that he got up quickly as if he didn’t enjoyed the last night cuddling session, a few minutes later the hyena woke up as well.

“Morning Nick… just gotta tell ya that only 3 bag of snacks survived, as well as your backpack with the water and my two chocolate bars but that’ll be enough, let’s get going, we can’t a single second of sunlight”.

“Sure, calm down let’s just take thing easily”.

And so they tried to find any sign or clue to Finnick’s whereabouts for an entire day then for two days and for three days without finding anything to where the little guy could be. In the fourth day things began to drastically change and something else was different, there were many reports among the people that survived the tsunami about some certain symptoms and how a few of them had it.

In the same day the duo decided to stop the search for Finnick and try to stock supplies they could find with the first place they went to was a stranded sideways passenger ship at the bottom of the Rainforest, they assumed that it was there since the wave but if they were lucky they would find a bit of… whatever, they needed something.

“Zachy I’m telling you, we won’t find anything there” insisted Nick.

“Ah, why you of little faith~? Of course we will, we just have to search in the right places” replied the hyena.

“And exactly where are the ‘right places’? We could have a chance if it was a cargo ship but this is a passenger ship, a _passenger_ ship”.

“So?”

Nick and Zachy managed to enter through the already broken windows exploring what once were rooms for people to enjoy and… eat, the hyena quickly hurried trying to find the kitchen rooms or restaurants, bars or anything that could be in a ship regarding food.

“This place is disturbing in some places” said Nick.

“Whaddaya mean?” asked Zachy

“There are still some… how do I say this? Um… un-living bodies?”

The hyena looked at Nick with a disbelief face.

“Ok,” he said “Let’s find something to eat and quickly get out of here”.

They spent for mostly another hour trying to find food but the only thing they got was a bag of flour, 2 bags of sugar and 4 apples scattered across the floor of the kitchens dispense. However in the same kitchen Nick found a peculiar object.

“Zachy does this seems familiar to you? I swear I’ve seen this before”.

The hyena approached to check out the object Nick called and at first he thought it was an ordinary object but after examining it carefully he realized what it was.

It was Finnick’s bat.

“He was here?! He was here!” he shouted excitedly “We gotta keep searching more clues! We can’t stop Nick, not now!”

“Calm down a bit will you? Relax and we’ll find it quicker”.

With Zachy calmed –at least calm enough to talk without screaming- they continue they search in the ship but not for food now but rather anything that could indicate were Finnick was or what he had been doing.

“I can’t find anything,” said Nick after a while “Maybe he was here during the EMP and the tsunami got him-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!! Don’t even think about it! Anyways we haven’t checked the boiler room”.

Nick couldn’t help it; he knew that Zachy was not going to leave the ship until they found anything regarding Finnick but he had to appreciate it, he would probably do the same if it was Judy though he couldn’t understand why Zachy would want to check the boiler room.

Despite all of that Nick didn’t say a word until Zachy got fully convinced that Finnick wasn’t there.

“With all honestly, why do you think he could be here?” the fox asked.

“Heat… I guess, I don’t know too much about ships” Zachy replied.

But it only took a few minutes before finding exactly what Zachy was looking for but it wasn’t Finnick or a note telling where he was going but rather his clothes, his exact shirt and the same shorts he was wearing before he left five days ago, the hyena picked them up staring at them for a long time before starting to tear up a bit.

“Zachy…” Nick tried to say something comforting but realized that there was nothing he could say to lighten the mood.

Zachy was now crying for the first time in his life after several years but he was just heavily tearing up but without making any sounds besides sniffing. Nick also teared up at the thought of losing his buddy from years ago but in the ways things were going he knew that it wasn’t going to be the only one.

“Zachy… we need to go” was all the fox could say.

Zachy slowly stood up also realizing that there was nothing else he could do but after staring at Nick for too long with his teary eyes, the hyena let himself fall into him so that the fox could hold him in a hug, Nick didn’t have anything to say or he couldn’t thought of any other thing to do at the moment but without thinking it twice he gave Zachy a gentle kiss in the forehead causing the hyena snap out of his anguish and making him blush.

“Wha-” was all he could say.

“I wasn’t thinking… plus maybe that will remind you of… your boyfriend”.

Zachy’s tear stopped and his shock of Nick kissing turned more into embarrassment.

“W-Was it obvious?”

“Not really, at first glance I would have never thought of it but after getting to know how everything works, from the blankets in the van, to the cuddling… you even told me that you knew how I felt about Judy”.

Zachy looked away to Finnick’s clothes and hugged Nick once again.

After both of them had calmed enough they decided to finally leave the ship with the apples they found hoping it wasn’t rotten.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since the arrival of the ship, two weeks since Judy left Zootopia and Nick in order to be with her family and two weeks when she thought that these invaders were friendly or that it was only just a ship. Now every each of those thoughts was gone, especially now with a pandemic… Yes, a pandemic, spread by something kind of unimaginable in Zootopia.

_Birds don’t just fly; they fall down and get up._ They sure do, birds are sentient like any other animal, just that they have their own city and land like thousands of miles away from Zootopia but they live exactly the same; the avians were known especially for their ability to fly, to go from one place to another with ease.

However they were infamously known for being the only animal species for carrying a disease called the avian flu, not highly deadly and it was very rare at least we could say that it wasn’t up until two weeks ago. The birds were unaware how badly sick they were until 2 days later where the symptoms became more common, but during those days they have plenty of time to spread the disease just enough.

Through the air, touching anyone or anything, this new virus was taking its toll and it was quickly spread. If you’re wondering how they got to Zootopia the answer is very easy, the avian flu was modified by the aliens into being the most effective killing method and not only because of how it could be spread but because of how it was being spread, by flying, despite the airplanes gone the birds were still able to travel across land and apparently the urge of flying was also modified… and the birds spread across the planet.

And now after two weeks the result of what the birds cause was starting to show.

In Bunnyburrow there was a small soccer stadium –also used for track field-, a stadium that of course stopped having people after the first attack of the aliens and was useless after the tsunami but now it was extremely useful. It was split into two halves, with one of them being full with check-in booths in order to see if you had the flu and medic gear that could still have somewhat utility. The other half was quarantine.

Half of a stadium was a big carp, an area made for people who already had the virus where the only people who could get in were restricted, highly protected officers to take out the body of a recent dead person, since there were still no recovery cases, it was expected that it had a 100% mortality rate but no one was entirely sure, now since all of the technology was gone.

It was forced in the town that every citizen had to check in every day in order to see if they had any signs of the virus –take note that this wasn’t the only place with check-in’s and quarantine-, now with the effects of the tsunami and the flu the population in Bunnyburrow had largely decreased but still wasn’t low.

Judy was now heading to her daily routine of checking herself and safely returning home as always, going to that stadium was actually terrifying for her just by imagining how it would feel for the people in quarantine, to know that they don’t have any chance of hope or the fact that they can’t even see their loved ones anymore.

Many lives across the town were lost in the tsunami, including her dad, but the warning she gave her family to stay at home minutes before the wave was probably the reason all of them were alive, not a single one of them succumbed to the virus also due to Judy’s protests for all of them to stay home, making her feel better about her choice of leaving Zootopia but the thought of what happened to Nick still bothered her.

While there was no limit on how many members you could bring at a time, the Hopps family decided to only go two at a time, not to the same stadium of course considering there were +200 members it took longer but better safe than sorry.

“I still don’t feel safe by going there,” said Judy to her mom, who was the one that was accompanying her today “We can easily catch the virus by being in large groups and that… is a big large group”

“Don’t be scared honey, remember that not every Bunnyburrow citizen goes there, plus they try to enforce the social distancing rule as much as they can” replied her mother.

“But wouldn’t it be safer to just stay at home?”

“Maybe, maybe not… I feel better by going there” she said this last line with sorrow as if she regretted something.

What happened after that was normal as always, the would get to the stadium and a security guard would escort them to one of the many check-in booths, then the exam would take place with short revisions of each individual and the symptoms they’ve had felt recently or in what environment they had been in; for Judy it was short and quick, she spent more time in the house taking care of her entire family –with the help of some others of course-.

She passed the test healthy and safe and waited at the entrance for her mom to finish, only that this time it was taking longer than usual.

“C’mon, did they add something else?” she said to herself and walked back to the stadium looking for her mom.

She quickly found the booth with the rabbit that attended them but couldn’t find her mom anywhere.

“Excuse me,” she said “where’s the bunny that went after me?”

The rabbit stared at her trying to recall who she was but after a few seconds he was able to.

“You were the rabbit that I checked before the rabbit lady? A bit older?” he asked.

“Yes, that is correct, I think she’s taking too long and- where is she?”

The male rabbit didn’t say anything for a long pause, with each second that passed was making Judy more nervous, the doctor’s words were just than enough to confirm her worst fears.

“She is in quarantine”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all of you Wildehopps fans, don’t worry about Nick and Zachy’s relationship, I still have plans for the fox and the rabbit ahead so stay tuned and see you soon!


	8. Blood's Stronger than Water

Two weeks ago the fox Nick and the hyena Zachy found in a stranded ship what was left of a friend of both: Finnick, since then they knew that stubbornly searching for their partners was no use and that they should focus more on trying to survive, especially now with a pandemic.

The duo still wandered around the Rainforest District seeing the aftermath of the tsunami but after finding out about the diseased called ‘The Red Plague’ by many people, they knew they had to find shelter immediately and it wasn’t easy considering they had to also search for supplies. Until now they were able to find a house were they spent three nights in that was unfortunately habited by people who were looking for it.

And that’s how most of the two weeks went by, finding and leaving a house after realizing it had an owner, until one day Zachy stole two bikes in order for them to travel faster now that their feet were starting to hurt.

Since they found Finnick’s clothes back on the ship, Nick and Zachy were starting to become closer, Nick always told to himself every night that Judy was alive and healthy, that she outsmarted the tsunami and was currently fighting against the pandemic and that they would find each other one day, however it wasn’t the only person the fox thought about. But right now he had to rely on the hyena since he did so many great things and was super glad that he came to that van on the day of the EMP.

For Zachy Nick was the only person he had right now, after realizing he lost his best partner and boyfriend, he had warmed up enough to the fox to finally call him a friend instead of a rival like the first day they met, now he didn’t want to stay 1 minute away from Nick, especially with all of the things that happened recently, being away from the fox was something that made him anxious and did not wanted him to meet the same fate as Finnick. In fact he currently had a crush on Nick but after the recent death of his previous love he did not wanted to push it.

“I want to go somewhere today” said Nick in one of the boring, long and usual days.

“Yeah okay” Zachy replied sarcastically thinking it was a joke.

“No, I’m serious; I was planning to go somewhere before their arrival and I still do”.

“Wait, anything you were planning to do before all of this won’t be possible now with all of the waves”.

“Waves?”

“Yeah, the EMP, tsunami, the pandemic, call them plagues or attacks whatever, they’re waves trying to kill us all”.

That was another thing none of them could solve, what did they want? And why are they attacking now? Because they were being very precise and strategical the first wave makes them less powerful for the second one and the second wave leaves them less powerful for the third one.

“I’m still going, I’ll take the bike and you stay here” insisted Nick.

“No fucking way!” shouted Zachy “Do you think I’m gonna let you wander around without even telling me where you’re going?! I already made that mistake and I’m not planning to do it again!”

Nick paused for a second remembering that the last time the hyena let someone go he ended up losing that person.

“Then will you come with me?” asked the fox.

After thinking for a few seconds and knowing that he wasn’t going to change Nick’s mind about leaving despite a pandemic taking place, he agreed taking their biked and starting a trip to… Savannah Central.

“Savannah?!” asked Zachy once Nick told him where they were going “And what do you want to do there? That town must be screwed right now”.

“I need to visit someone,” replied Nick “I don’t know if she’s still alive but if she is then I wouldn’t forget myself”.

Zachy noticed again that Nick referred to that person as a ‘she’ only that this time he wasn’t going to tease him.

* * *

The news hit Judy like a truck, she just lost her father two weeks ago when he was seconds away from being saved and now she was going to lose her mother without even telling her goodbye? She never even showed any symptoms so maybe the doctors were wrong, maybe they made a mistake or they confusing Judy with someone else… they had to.

She quickly rushed to the quarantine carp trying to see if it was true, to try and find her mom. She saw the line and how guards were carrying the infected to the quarantine area but she couldn’t spot her anywhere, maybe due to the fact that there were a lot of people.

Judy was on the brink of leaving after a certain bunny turned his head back only to find out that, yes, Bonnie Hopps was infected with the virus and was heading to quarantine to slowly be gone forever.

As their stares crossed, each one of them could see on the other a look of despair, sorrow, fear and sadness all at the same time as Judy’s mom slowly entered the carp and the cop bunny could do nothing but watch from the distance as how her mother got carried away by a guard into a building never to be seen again.

* * *

After hours of tough biking through the Rainforest District all the way to Savannah Central the hustling duo kept riding on the streets that were now lacking the cars, the citizens or everything that made Zootopia, Zootopia. Now the only thing that was on the air was the smell of blood.

Oh, blood! That’s another thing; do you know why it got called the red plague? When the virus enters the body it takes one day for the symptoms to kick in -that’s 24 hours for you to spread the virus without knowing it-, it starts with a hard cold then the fever and then you start getting a strong coughing spitting out a few drops of blood, in three days you give your last –and powerful as well- cough expulsing a high amount of blood out of your mouth and passing away mostly thanks to the bleed out that comes out. While only few have watched it without getting infected, they’ve certainly said that is something horrifying to watch that looks like it came from a movie.

“I told you we needed masks,” said Zachy with a bit of teasing while going through the neighborhoods and hearing a few houses bashing at them “It’s a pandemic Nick, you need to be protected”.

“Do you know where are masks? If you don’t, be quiet ‘cause I would like them too”.

They continue to ignore the neighbors and finally got to the place where Nick wanted to arrive: A house not taller than three floors with some broken windows and slight holes caused by the damage of the second wave.

“Is this the place?” the hyena asked.

“It sure is” Nick replied with a complete different tone, lacking the charisma he usually had.

The door was also broken so it was easy to enter, as they walked through it they found all things you would find in a house after an earthquake and a tsunami, broken glass, books all over the floor, pictures shattered, chairs fallen among many other things.

While exploring the house, Zachy as seeing all types of things like what once was a kitchen or a dining table, but what caught his eye were some pictures of some foxes probably the previous owners of the house as he examined them carefully he saw stuff like a little fox cub in a boy scout suit with his happy little smile next to a female fox. The hyena stood there since it was the picture that hooked him the most and after a few seconds realization struck him.

This was Nick’s house.

The fox cub with the Boy Scout outfit was Nick and the female fox could be none other than his mother, shocked and excited by this he whispered as loud as he could calling out for Nick and getting a bit scared when he couldn’t find him; however he found a staircase that led to a second room probably where the bedrooms where, there were only two rooms so he looked in both of them and when he checked the second one, there he was.

But it wasn’t just Nick who was standing next to the bed. The hyena could see that in the bed that was in the center of the room was another fox with signs of weakness, Zachy quickly understood the situation and part of him knew that this was a moment that Nick needed to be alone so he quietly leaved the room but the other part of him got the best and couldn’t help but overhear from outside what was going on.

He couldn’t comprehend what was happening just by barely listening to it but what he could understand was that Mrs. Wilde –the fox in the bed- was indeed sick and Nick was here to say his last goodbyes. He also heard that they mentioned Nick’s father but wasn’t able to hear that much; at this point he felt guilty of overhearing the conversation and simply headed down to wait for Nick.

After a few minutes of walking back and forth the fox came down the stairs with signs that he was trying to hold back tears.

“Let’s go Zachy” Nick said like if they didn’t find anything here, and they were about to leave just like that but Zachy felt that he needed to say something.

“Hey… I found this;” he said handing him the picture he previously found “Didn’t know you wanted to be a boy scout” the hyena trying to lighten the situation but failing in the process.

Instead Nick got a bit nostalgic staring at the picture for too long before actually saying something.

“Yeah, she bought this suit,” the fox said and made another long pause “I couldn’t even touch her Zach… couldn’t give her a hug or… nothing”

Zachy’s strong point wasn’t console people or giving motivational speeches but he felt the urge to maybe say something.

“You’re lucky Nick,” he said and while his brain was telling him to stop his mouth didn’t “I ran away when I was a teen because I couldn’t bear with my parents and neither could they with me, the fact that she bought you this is like a new feeling to me”

Nick looked at Zachy slightly confused letting the hyena know that his point wasn’t clear enough.

“You see, right now you still have Judy, but I… after losing Finnick I don’t think I have anyone left to rely on”.

Nick looked at him with a short pause and with a forced smile he said:

“I’m still here so you have at least one more”.

The hyena took this and Nick’s smile as his advantage to try and turn things upside down.

“Then you have two people left I only have one,” he replied smiling “And right now I need to take care of him because otherwise he is willing to go out there without a facemask during a pandemic”

Nick’s forced smile got replaced by a genuine one.

“Maybe we can search something around here that’ll work, we’re hustlers after all”.

“Hustlers? That sounds like a duo… then… friends, perhaps?” Zachy said offering for a handshake letting Nick remember the first time they agreed to something where they did it practically hating each other and just working as partners trying to get their loved ones back.

“Friends” the fox replied accepting the hand.

“Can I call you Nicky then?” he said teasingly

“Not yet” said Nick and with this he knew that no matter what kind of alien attack it was or how many waves there would be he would still being a sly fox.


	9. Military Intervention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: This chapter will feature a mass shooting; if you’re sensitive to that subject I’ll warn you when we get there

A week after Judy went with her mom, the cases of the outbreak were luckily slowing down thanks to the lockdown, checking booths and quarantine camps that sadly ended with more than half the population of Bunnyburrow, and while most of the nightmare had already happened, the moments lived through it weren’t.

Judy still couldn’t bear with the thought of her mother going through one of the most horrifying ways to die and her father drowning in a tsunami both of them without being able to properly said goodbye to either. And maybe you could say that she still had her family, but that was also changing.

In this last week not only did her mother succumb to the virus but several of her family members as well, going from 270 siblings to approximately 100, in over a week, the Hopps family was drastically reduced along with many others.

Now Judy Hopps was in her room sitting on the edge of the bed with so many things going through her mind but the main one was Nick whereabouts, she didn’t know how he handled the EMP or if he even survived the tsunami and now with the pandemic, she wouldn’t be surprised to find out he died as well. Maybe coming to Bunnyburrow was the worst idea she ever had since that didn’t prevented her parents’ death and now maybe Nick as well.

The door of the room slowly opened revealing a little bunny with a pink dress.

It was Cotton. Judy’s niece and one of the few remaining members of the family that despite of everything that happened she remained in her usual innocent self and currently she was the only one that made Judy smile, that reminded her that not everything was lost and there were still people that relied on her.

“Hello Aunt Judy!” she said with a smile.

“Hi!” Judy replied in a tired way but also excited “How are you sweetie?”

“I’m fine! I came here to be with you”.

“And I’m glad you did, I also wanted to be with you!”

Cotton sat next to Judy with Judy hugging her.

“Why isn’t anyone returning?” asked the little bunny referring to every member of the family that left to one of the checking booths and never coming back.

Judy took his time to think of a response, she didn’t wanted to give the little kid false hope and didn’t wanted to lie but saying that all of them were dead was something that not even her wanted to be reminded of.

“Remember that we needed to stay in our houses?” she replied and Cotton nodded “Well, they were… taken to a special place because they got sick”.

“But when will they return?”

“I… Maybe… if they were taken to a special place may- maybe that place needs for them to stay there”.

“For how long?”

“I don’t… I don’t know, but I don’t think it will be soon”.

That seemed to calmed the little bunny’s mind but it certainly wasn’t enough to stop worrying about it, but at least the conversation wasn’t brought up again and they just sat there for minutes hugging each other until Cotton asked yet another question.

“Are you going to leave as well?”

This one took Judy by surprise, she expected that she would ask her anything about the whereabouts of everyone but this was different, but easier to answer, even if she could go back to Zootopia being here was way more important.

“Of course, I’m staying! I don’t have any intentions on leaving”.

This managed to get a smile on little Cotton’s face and thus giving Judy a smile as well and it was true, even if she wanted to leave he couldn’t now just casually walk back to Zootopia. The two bunnies stayed on the room without doing or saying nothing and they were in the brink of falling asleep until they heard a familiar sound.

Engines, wheels, large and heavy object moving across the dirty road, and many sounds of excited people gasping at something.

“C’mon Cotton, let’s go!” whispered Judy excitedly and curious since Cotton was half asleep “There’s something outside!”

The two of them hurried to get out of the house and to see what the commotion was and when the find out she could not believe what she saw.

Two government jeeps, with their beige and brown pattern and of course, soldiers on it with behind of them like a dozen school buses roaming around the town. Cotton was excited to see vehicles start moving again after three weeks but for Judy this raised more questions than answers and she was sure that they were going to answer.

Many people started to come out of their houses around the neighborhood and were excited and shocked when seeing the same thing and after a large group of them were outside their houses and the last of the bus went through, in one of the jeeps a gray wolf with a commander attire stood up with a megaphone and since it seemed that he was going to say something, everyone became quiet.

“We’ve been on the lookout for survivor groups,” the wolf said with a very straight-forward voice “My men and I have found a place where you can be safe… We are here to help”.

With this last words the crowd cheered some of them sighing in relief or just clapping, for Judy this also gave her a feel of security that she hadn’t felt since he leaved that station, finally they weren’t alone against whatever that was in that ship.

* * *

Instead of returning to the Rainforest District, Nick & Zachy decided to find a house in Savanna with no owner, it was tricky to determine which was occupied and which not but after a few tries they did and spent the night there in a house with two rooms with one bed each, the next morning when Zachy woke up in a very hyperactive mood ready to start the day, a mood that only lasted for 43 minutes.

“Nick! Nick! You gotta see this!” he said waking up the fox violently with him being pretty annoyed by such abrupt awakening.

“What is it Zach?”

“Zachy. But I think the cars are starting again” he said excited.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Let’s go outside for you to see it, though I only have one problem with it”.

“And that is..?”

“That probably the government is involved” he said it with a tone sounding that he was annoyed or mad against it.

“That’s bad?! If the government is finally getting involved and you say that the cars are working then maybe we can finally get something!”

“Okay first, I didn’t say all the cars are working and second, their involvement never means good things, I’d rather for everyone to stay out of the way and let me do the things on my own”.

Nick was confused about what he just said but also definitely curious about it, he made it sound something like if the people in uniform teared down his house or something like that; maybe it was something else, maybe something less dramatic.

“In fact, I think you should know that when your bunny interfered, things around Zootopia got pretty messy between prey and predators”.

“Okay, okay, no need to get personal here,” quickly interrupted Nick a bit shocked to see Zachy like this “Weren’t we going outside?”

“Sure!” the hyena replied happily like if the last 10 seconds didn’t happen.

The hustling duo leaved their house that was only a few blocks away from Nick’s original home and many people were already outside in a large crowd seemingly following what was a line of three school buses. Seeing that the vehicles were indeed moving, Nick was pretty shocked and at the same time happy while Zachy was still curious about it.

“How do you think they managed to bring them back?” asked Zachy trying to put doubt into Nick’s mind.

“Whatever it is… it must be good”.

“Don’t you even wonder where’re they going?”

“I don’t,” the fox replied with a smirk “Guessing by the neighborhood, the sound the engines are coming from and my experience in Zootopia, they’re going to the Savanna Central Downtown.

Zachy stared at him a bit too long.

“Geez, I wasn’t asking for you to show off but ok, let’s go- I think”.

And so, they joined the crowd trying to see where it would get them this group of sheep and if Nick was right –which, spoilers, he was- then they would arrive to the Savanna Central downtown to find out what was truly happening, after a long time of walking the group finally arrived to what once was one of the most beautiful places in Zootopia, was now a bunch of rubble, broken streets and just didn’t look at all good.

Unlike in Bunnyburrow here there were only three operating school buses and two army jeeps along with soldiers, and this time it was a grizzly bear who announced himself as the Commander Vosch and who told everyone that they were here to help with, again, many cheers from the crowd.

Nick & Zachy didn’t had anything to do but to watch around them how people were talking between them and how grateful they were, this was until a message was given through the microphone that, please, the parents and adults should go to the now destroyed Zootopia Police Department while the kids and minors would be taken into the school buses.

“What do they want with the kids?” asked Zachy.

“Maybe they’re being taken to a better facility?” replied Nick trying to give a reason to it as he was not sure either.

“Yeah, but wouldn’t be better to take **all** of us to that better facility? I mean, after three waves of constant destruction giving up your kids to the army won’t be easy for some of these parents”.

Zachy was right, after everything they went through many people were going to be upset about this and Nick could see already parents asking if they couldn’t stay with them but the replies of the soldiers were all the same _“No, only kids may go into the buses, we have orders that kids will be taken first and then we’ll proceed with the adults, please make your way to the police department”._

After roughly 20-30 minutes of organizing the children and adults to their respective places, the hustling duo made their way into the ZPD along with the rest of animals, and the rest of the soldiers guarding the main entrance, it was a big crowd but it wasn’t a huge one, plus without the kids it made space for everyone with Vosch being on the same announcement podium that months ago was used to warn Zootopia about some very important news that turned out to be fake, there the commander was seconds away from giving a speech with on the sides there were more guards.

Being back in the place that made every day of his life worth it made Nick a bit uncomfortable being in this place wondering where everyone that he used to know were, maybe still alive or maybe not.

“Feeling uneasy?” asked the hyena noticing Nick’s worry “Because I gotta tell ya, this isn’t my first time in this place”.

“I wouldn’t be surprised about that, now shush, Mr. Bear has something to say that maybe it will clear some things” Nick replied smiling trying to hide how he really felt.

“May I have your attention please?” called Vosch through the megaphone.

“Quick question, how many bullets you have left of your gun?” asked Zachy rapidly but Nick didn’t replied as he saw it a bit morbid and he was more focused on Vosch’s speech.

After the room went quiet, the bear continued.

“We believe that there’s the possibility that the 4th wave of the aliens has begun,” there was mumble by part of the crowd “They have come down of their ship and are able to invade animal hosts and control their actions”.

“So they look… like animals?” asked a deer nearby.

“That’s correct” replied Vosch.

“Where are they?” a lion asked.

“They could be anywhere… we know that they are hunting down remaining survivor and we got intel that would suggest that some of them may even be in this very building”.

This provoked more mumbling across the crowd making Zachy a little more panicked than he already was.

“Are you saying some of us are aliens?!” asked someone.

“Please, there’s a lot we still don’t know,” Vosch continued trying to calm everyone “We can detect them in children but the procedure for adults is a bit more complicated”.

“What about our kids?” asked a female voice from the back followed by many people agreeing becoming angrier and angrier by the second.

“I know you all want to be back with your families… Unfortunately we’ll need to move all of you to a security facility in order to-”

The commander was not able to finish his sentence because as soon as this was said everyone was protesting and complaining about it while the guards were simply trying to calm down the crowd.

**\--TRIGGER WARNING--**

But it wasn’t calming down; the situation was going to barely manageable to out of control in seconds as one male hippo made his way through everyone going for the main door to escape the madness only to find the guards stopping him from leaving pointing at him with their guns; Zachy’s heart beating was rapidly accelerating and asked once again how many bullets Nick had but the fox still didn’t replied since now he was paralyzed of fear just like the hyena.

The commotion was still on, with everyone trying to calm down everyone but helping no one. Zachy didn’t saw whose was the first shot, from the hippo? From Vosch? From one of the guards? It didn’t mattered because what was certain was that a shot was fired followed by a second one and then a third one, without thinking twice about what he was going to do, Zachy grabbed Nick’s gun and immediately shot himself in the shoulder and pulled Nick and shot him in the same spot whispering _“Hold your breath”_ while also trying to hold the pain of the bullet, both of them fell to the ground in pain while now instead of a crowd trying to listen to a commander, there was a mass shooting around everyone with Nick & Zachy couldn’t do much but to grunt in pain while also trying to hide the fact that they were not alive.

Nick was highly confused and scared at this point, just a few seconds ago he was cheerfully cracking jokes with Zachy but now the same hyena shot both of them in the shoulder and were now in the ground trying to hold his breath which wasn’t that hard since he felt that he could pass out at any moment, all of this while having to endure the sounds of shotguns, terror and agony that many people were suffering right now.

**\--END OF TRIGGER—**

When all the screaming stopped, and the soldiers along with the commander Vosch leaved, the hustling duo started to slowly move with their chests bleeding and in need for medical help, only that the hospitals were out of order.

“We- we need something” tried to say Zachy while struggling to get up.


	10. I Wasn't Thinking

When the soldiers arrived and told everyone that they were going to help, Judy went into her house calling the rest of her family telling them to get ready like many others rabbits among the neighborhood were doing, but while she was happy, she was also wondering how did they manage to turn the cars back on again and –once she checked- why the phones still didn’t work.

But it didn’t matter since apparently, just because some guys with a higher authoritarian power than you suddenly appeared without previous explanation meant that the war against the aliens was going to be over and everything _should_ return to normal. However all of this joy dropped massively when she heard that only the kids would go into the buses.

 _Only the kids?_ She thought when the news was given and went outside confused as if going outside would solve the situation.

“Adults, please go to the main barn for info. Children, please go to the buses for transport” a deer was announcing with a megaphone.

For Judy this seemed a bit reasonable, the “ladies and kids first” rule has existed for ages and bringing the most vulnerable crowd to safety first wasn’t a dumb move at all they were doing a favor, but the other side of the coin would be that she was going to leave without Cotton, especially after she just said to her that she had no intentions in leaving.

However at that moment, like a dream, she remembered something, something that happened three weeks ago and that yet it was one of the moments that she would never forget no matter what she went through.

_“Keep being sly, bunny”._

And right there and right now she an idea, it wasn’t the brightest or the smartest actually but it was the only thing she could think of right now though fooling government guards was never an easy thing to do. The only thing she needed to do was to find Cotton and take her to one of the buses

I was pretty easy, telling Cotton to go to a school bus was something that they’ve been doing for years so it wasn’t anything new for either the tricky part was when she tried to casually go into the vehicle herself before, obviously, being stopped by a white wolf soldier that was guarding the entry.

“Excuse me miss, we have orders to take only minors” the wolf stated.

“I’m sorry, are you saying I’m not a minor?” she asked very uncertainly that her plan was going to work.

“Without any offense miss, you look a bit tall for a young bunny”.

“How many bunnies have you seen in your life?”

The wolf stared at her with a very challenging look.

“Do you have an ID?”

“No, I’ve been through an earthquake and a tsunami, what would make you think I still have an ID with me?”

The wolf was not convinced by this and he was about to ditch Judy but instead he walked a few meters away calling on the radio he had on his shoulder speaking with someone, after finishing his conversation he let Judy enter the bus with her being teasingly thankful.

The first thing she did was of course sitting next to Cotton who was at the back of the bus.

“Aunt Jud-!” She was shh’d by Judy told her to only call her by her name.

Now I guess they were going to wait before the buses started their ride and then she guessed that it would be the adults’ turn so at the end everyone should end up together unless they were taken to a different area

* * *

“Nick, are you ok?” Zachy asked “Can you get up?” For some reason he didn’t expect an answer but was hugely satisfied when he said something.

“Bandages… Anything” Nick said and the hyena immediately knew that he was referring that both of them needed medical attention, but because they wouldn’t receive attention, just medical supplies were going to be enough.

“Where can I find it?” said Zachy struggling to get up with one arm since the shoulder he got shot in wasn’t magically healed and Nick tried to give him the directions of the ZPD’s medical system.

Zachy immediately rushed to where Nick told him to and barely found anything due to the earthquake impact on the building, however, he did found a usable bed along with a small but enough set of medical bandages. He took off his shirt and decided to wrap some of it around his self-made wound tighten it, afterwards he grabbed what was left and went back the lobby running looking for Nick if that fox died due to loss of blood that was going to be his fault and that was going something he didn’t want to live with.

He found him in the same spot struggling to get up but not having the same luck as Zachy so the hyena decided that instead of treating him in the bare floor surrounded by bodies, he took him to the mini-hospital where he put him in the bed to wrap him in a better situation.

The hyena did the same that he did to himself by first taking Nick’s shirt off and wrapping the bandage around the shoulder, after finishing said process Zachy grabbed back his t-shirt since he didn’t want to make the situation a bit too… uncomfortable.

“I guess you were right” Nick calmly said.

“Wish I weren’t” Zachy replied almost instantly.

There was a small pause between them with only hearing the wind before Nick asked.

“What do we do now?” The first question to his mind was about the shooting they just witnessed but of course neither wanted to speak about it.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Zachy replied, “Because right now I- Maybe- They may be doing this for regions not only here, the bear himself said it _‘They came down of their ship and they’re hunting survivors’_ , right now they’re taking the vulnerable group to somewhere leaving the ones that can think and act behind, killing them”.

“But we survived”.

“And that’s going to be their mistake”.

“What? A hyena and a fox against an army of aliens” Nick said slightly chuckling “You and me versus… why would they need the kids for? Why not just kill them as well?”

“I don’t know! Maybe they will use it to morbidly turn them into one of them or brainwash the little souls!”

“Zachy, Zachy, you’re going to science-fiction in this scenario, add some logic in there”.

“I am! It wouldn’t be too far-fetched after all…”

There was another pause before Nick gasped as if the most brilliant idea came to his mind.

“You say that they may be going through areas?”

“Or already did it, maybe their next stop will be Little Rodentia, then probably the Rainforest and so and so”.

“Right, the only thing in mind right now would be just hiding like criminals trying to avoid them until they’re gone”.

Zachy stared at him in confusion before replying.

“Okay, first, that’s a lame idea, second, that is just being a fugitive with extra steps which I have some experience on it but I doubt that you do since the only time you faced real consequences was when a bunny confronted you with a recorder”.

“Wait… how do you know that?”

“A little fennec told me…”

“Oh”.

“However I can improve your idea and that is… leaving Zootopia, out of the limits, out of the city”.

Now it was Nick who stared at Zachy in confusion.

“You want to… what? How?”

“Honestly, I don’t know but I don’t think your original idea had any plans though, however, if you want a fair answer, maybe we can grab a boat on the shore… and sail away like there’s no tomorrow”.

They both paused trying to think a bit on what he just said

“You wanna leave Zootopia and into the woods?” Nick asked for confirmation.

“Not the best plan but it’s surely better than yours, but right now I would like to punch each one of those soldiers in the face” he said slightly chuckling.

“But Zachy, if we leave where would we go next?”

The hyena put his fingers in his jaw thinking.

“Well, you do know that there’s a facility outside Zootopia no one talked about right?”

Nick shook his head.

“You don’t? Like 300 miles away from the west… a secret, nothing?”

“Nope, but you sure make it sound spooky, but I still don’t know what do you want to do… Raid it? Make yourself the hero?”

“I… don’t know… Maybe- yeah, making myself the hero, though I don’t know why, I don’t think we’re even going to stand a chance, look what they did, trick an entire crowd of grown-ups into a building, made them look the victims and just eliminate everyone”.

“Everyone but two,” Nick replied with a smirk “Currently, we’re still outsmarting them and that’s the only way we’re going to survive these waves”.

“How are we ‘outsmarting them’? We started with bad blood in the first wave, almost drown in the second one, and you went outside without face masks in the third one!”

“But we’re doing that together”.

“We’ll end up getting killed at this point”.

“Then we’ll do that together too”.

Zachy wandered around the room making up his mind about the crazy plan they were trying to poorly execute, he asked Nick to give him a space on the bed for him to sit since he was getting a bit tired of standing too long.

“Thank you for doing that” said Nick kindly smiling.

“Don’t Nick… a bit to the right and I would have ended the life of your arm, a bit to the left and it could have got you a bullet straight to the neck… It was too risky”.

“If you didn’t do it we wouldn’t be talking right now”.

“I don’t care, I wasn’t thinking and that could have gotten more trouble than good”.

Nick laughed a bit smirking confusing Zachy.

“In what moment have we thought things through?” the fox asked “We weren’t thinking when we agreed to work with each other to look for our partners, I wasn’t thinking when I was about to leave you behind after the earthquake and you weren’t thinking when you chose to wait for me during the tsunami. I wasn’t thinking when I gave you that Lil’ kiss in the boat and I wasn’t thinking when I went outside without a face mask-”.

“-And you weren’t thinking when you chose to trust those government guys and while we’re at it, let’s say that we weren’t thinking when we cuddled on that night” said Zachy finishing the speech.

“Exactly! Now you get it if we thought things through we wouldn’t be here”.

Zachy looked at him smiling nodding in agreement which was a sign trying to tell him ‘thank you’. After this none of them said a word and instead Nick tried to give him bed space for him to lay on, despite it was a small bed it was plenty of space for the two of them to rest comfortably.

“Guess we’re taking down an alien base” said Nick and with this they both slept.


	11. Wonderland

Nick & Zachy both slept for almost three hours but it was Zachy who, as usual, woke up first, with his arm still hurting a bit but he could at least move it slowly, when he decided to wake up Nick the fox found that his arm was more damaged than Zachy’s and it still hurt making the hyena feel more guilty than how he did before they slept.

However their first move was to leave the building but not without the hyena taking one rifle from one of the deceased guards, who also died during the shooting, Nick felt bad for with him doing it but it was Zachy who told him it was for ‘survival reasons’ while also reloading Nick’s simple gun since it only had one bullet left. Going through the lifeless bodies was something painful for both of them but it was the last step to exit the ZPD.

Once done they tried to look for signs of the government jeeps or school buses like kids looking to both sides before crossing the road, but luckily they didn’t find anything, the second step was to see if the vehicles were real or fraud and when they found a car with keys still in it, they found that… it wasn’t working so the whole thing with the buses was something probably done exclusively to them.

The next step was exhausting just by thinking on it and that was of course going 300 miles west from Zootopia without any method of transportation except some bikes if they could find one.

“What about scooters? Skates? Skateboards?” asked Zachy.

“We can do that, but if the guys in uniforms are still around then we don’t can’t roam freely like on the first day” replied Nick.

“But we can try…”

And, yes, they did try but that took them like another hour with hearts beating stupidly fast thinking that at any corner the commander Vosch was going to suddenly appear and with only one shot he would end their lives. But it paid off because they found in one street two set of skateboards that though they looked rusty they were usable and managed to hold the weight of them.

“So… Nicky,” said Zachy with a grin “Do you think that you can ride one of these without breaking your bones in the process?”

“You think I can’t?” replied Nick smirking “If you want, Zachary, we can make a race to the west coast”.

“Well, well, well! I was not expecting that...! But I’ll take it, once we can find where the west is”.

“It will be easy”.

* * *

Being in a bus ride that seemed to last forever, though it only did for two hours, Judy had to endure Cotton’s questions like ‘where are we gonna get there’ or ‘where are we going’ and despite she told her simple replies like ‘soon’ or ‘to a safe place’, she was the one craving for answers to all this mess or why the adults had to be taken after the kids.

In the meanwhile, the wolf soldier that let Judy into the bus was next to the driver and started to excitedly encourage the children like saying how much food they had or how safe the place was and many other things like if everything was just a school trip.

But then he proceeded with something that looked like a thermometer to check the forehead of every passenger if they were sick with Judy noticing how it sometimes the thermometer marked green and sometimes it was red with the wolf giving them a sticker of the color they received. When it was the time for Judy and Cotton both of them had a red result and were given the red stickers.

What scared Judy the most was how surprised or shocked the soldier looked every time someone scored a green result.

During the ride, there was a young female sheep sit next to Cotton who the bunny started a conversation with, this made Judy happy in some way because it kept her little niece occupied but after she overheard the backstory of the sheep she quickly realized that it wasn’t a pretty one.

“What’s your color anyway?” asked Cotton once they finished their stories.

“Uh… green” the sheep replied.

“Aw, that’s a shame, my color’s red, I wish we could’ve been the same!” she said excitedly.

Soon they arrived with Cotton resting in Judy’s lap to a building surrounded by many fences and nature itself. The building was just one floor high, and extended both right and left, reaching almost 100 meters long. Along with its extension, and right in front of it, there were six big red circles, marked on the ground, with many animals inside of them and two containing school buses next to them.

This lets Judy realize that they certainly weren’t the first one or the last group to arrive, shortly after the bus stopped next to a circle almost empty and letting the passengers come out with the wolf soldier outside waiting for everyone.

“C’mon sweet pea,” said Judy gently patting Cotton who stretched before getting ready to leave.

The kids in the front row started to leave first with the wolf soldier giving them an encouragement speech again telling that everyone who scored green was going to stay giving a paper to the kids with red results, telling every single one of them the same words.

“Stay in the circle and wait for your number to be called”.

“Bye!” said to the Cotton to the sheep who looked devastated but trying to smile as well.

Judy and Cotton both received a paper with different numbers which scared Judy a lot since now her plan on infiltrating the base as an adult only to be with her niece could be worthless just because of some number.

Once in the circle, Judy tried to look around to the other circles and saw how every single one of them had a soldier in front of the crowd of kids with a megaphone announcing the numbers, she saw how in the circle next to her right, the number called was “305” and a young beige wolf with a white shirt and red shorts approached to the soldier with the megaphone and said soldier took him inside the base through a red door.

The soldier for her circle started to call and the first number he said was “435”, Judy looked to her paper only to find out that it was hers and that this would mean what she expected, being far from Cotton. Before walking away from her, she gave her a quiet ‘see you soon’ smiling trying to keep her in her little spirit, but honestly, she was scared for what was could happen.

The soldier took her to a red door that led to a wide white hallway with only two doors one on each side, Judy got taken to the left door where there was a female deer in medical attire in the middle of the room with a position like if she was waiting for her the whole time. The room was pure white with only the typical things you would find in any generic hospital room, a bed, a table with supplies, a moving chair to sit on, and a large mirror in an empty wall.

The deer asked Judy to sit on the bed while pulling a pen and an information card.

“What’s your name?” the deer asked straight-forward but with a smile.

“Judy,” she replied quietly “Judy Hopps”.

“Well Judy, my name is the doctor Pamela you can call me Pam”.

Pam stopped always with a smile waiting for Judy to reply but the bunny didn’t say anything.

“So, Judy, where are you from?”

“Uh… Bunnyburrow”.

“Right, silly me! All of you bunnies come from that town; I’ve heard that you have extensive families. Tell me, do you have any family left?”

Though Judy didn’t want to remember or even think about that, she thought that this was part of the procedure and information that needed to be known.

“My dad died in the tsunami, my mother and more than half my siblings died to the virus”.

“Half your siblings?” she replied a bit shocked “And how many of you were?”

“Over 200”.

This time the doctor just nods and reaches out for a gun-shaped machine in the table along with a blue object the size of a rice grain.

“This is a tracking device, Judy; you _are_ right now the most important thing in the world against the aliens”.

“You must tell that to everyone here”.

“Indeed I do,” she replied “Because all of you are… now take a deep breath”.

Judy did as told and felt a not-so-painful but it wasn’t just a little sting in the neck, at least she was going to feel it for about a couple hours. The doctor Pam took note of something and told Judy to lay down in the bed.

“Alright Judy, this is the last step but I need you to close your eyes and try not to move, even the arm, ears, nothing… ok?”

“Yeah, I can do that”.

“That’s good but just in case, you don’t mind that we tie your arms and legs for a while? Only during this process”.

Judy shook her head indicating that the fact of being tied up was not a problem, the doctor told her once again to close her eyes and relax while pressing a button.

Just with the push of a button, Judy felt an explosion in her mind.

And there she was back again at her house in Bunnyburrow as a cub giving her first steps, she wasn’t just remembering the moment, she was re-living them, the next scene was her in an auditorium of a talent show giving a cute little speech about how your dreams could become true in a city called Zootopia as well as revealing her dream job: a police officer.

The next scene was her playing with her dad and mom in their house’s farm, then like a quick montage, she was doing all the training it took to become Zootopia’s first bunny cop and the first time she arrived to said city.

Afterward, her first encounter with _that_ hustler fox whose name was Nicholas P. Wilde, and the tension they had at the beginning of their adventure, and the next scene was the two of them in a gondola.

“Nick, you are much more than that” Judy told him after Nick explained how everyone viewed foxes as untrustworthy.

Then, the aftermath of they both solved that case was shown as well as Nick joining the police academy now working as a partner and the adventures they five months after.

And finally finishing with the aliens’ arrival, how she chose to go to Bunnyburrow instead of returning with Nick, the way she endured the earthquake and the tsunami and the loss of her parents when she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

And just with that, she woke up


	12. Attacking from Within'

“Nick!” Judy woke up gasping strongly of her dream-vision-memories or whatever that the doctor Pam just put her through.

“What was that?!” Judy insisted while the deer untied her off the bed helping her to incorporate into the real world.

“Relax… That’s called Wonderland, it’s like a map of your brain, a way to see you from the inside and what’s happening,” she said this with hand gestures similar to Nick’s that made Judy remember him “I see that you have someone else… Tell me sweetheart, who is this Nick?”

Judy wasn’t sure if she should give her an answer and honestly, she wanted to stop thinking about where he could be right now but Pam’s sweet and kindness got the better of her.

“He’s a friend of mine”.

“A close one right?”

“Yes”.

“And is he alive?”

Another question she didn’t want to answer but couldn’t help it.

“I… don’t know, we got split before the EMP and I haven’t known anything about him since… But what’s happening?” she asked this question trying to prevent the doctor from asking another one.

“We got attacked and controlled from the inside, Hopps; they’ve infiltrated the earth… through us”.

Judy didn’t understand this at first but Pam gave her plenty of time to properly get it, the fact that the aliens were controlling animal minds was something she wouldn’t expect, but everything so far had been unexpected things so it wasn’t anything new.

“Judy… Would you like to see one?”

* * *

A hyena and a fox spent the entire day skating in the open of Savanna Central and through the Rainforest District having the time of their lives –maybe not so much- while the main goal was trying to avoid the commander Vosch or anyone that may work with them. They tried to keep this spirit up not only because it was who they were but also because it made them forget the trauma they just went through only hours ago.

At the end of the day already in the sunset, they reached their desired destination: Zootopia’s west shore, or more specifically, one of the docks in the Rainforest, nothing much was to be seen except what were usually stores, phone booths and plenty of stuff that didn’t have a purpose now, or maybe they did since the hustling duo managed to get more fruits and water bottles.

The next step was going to be to sail away from Zootopia which still none of them was sure that the plan of raiding an alien base was going to work but right now they were too exhausted to think about anything. After looking for a rowboat and finding only two in place with four exact rows, two for each side.

“So here begins our adventure heh?” said Nick pouring the fruits they found into the boat.

“Our adventure began like four weeks ago, but yeah, our second chapter of the adventure begins here, sort of” replied Zachy.

After getting the rowboat ready and prepared they hoped in with Zachy sitting at the front using the two rows but slowly since his shoulder wound wasn’t fully healed while Nick sits at the back only used one arm making the hyena more concerned about his arm status. But once everything was ready they started to sail

None of them said anything for approximately 20 minutes until Nick started to question the plan once again.

“Remind me why are we doing this? How do we even know that the base you say is the right one?” the fox asked.

“I don’t _know_ if the base is the right one, I’m just assuming it is because there’s nothing that tells me that it is the right one… If it is, then that’s luck, otherwise, if it’s not I wouldn’t know what to do after”.

“Okay then” Nick replied looking at his surroundings and occasionally looking behind him at the city, leaving the only place he knew ended up being a little bit hard but honestly, the idea of raiding, destroying and eliminating an alien headquarters was a silly fantasy that he couldn’t wait to see if it was possible.

Probably after all of this ended they would return to the city and everything would end up in history books. Again they didn’t have anything to talk about so most of the time it was awkward, at least seeing how the night came was something pleasing to watch, experiencing again watching the sky filled with stars.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” said Zachy looking at the sky “Remember our first night? It was amazing, wish we could have experienced this in other circumstances…”

Of course, Nick remembered it only that at that moment was where none of them knew where Finnick and Judy were and right now both of them knew precisely where they were, the former was dead, probably caused by the tsunami and the former was in Bunnyburrow presumably dead, or at least Nick tried to think that way because thinking otherwise was like giving himself false hope, yet still, a small part of him wanted to feel that she was alive.

“Technically we were experiencing this every night, we just couldn’t see it” Nick replied to Zachy’s comment smiling.

There was another pause only that this time it wasn’t as long as the other ones.

“I miss him,” said Zachy with a very different tone with Nick taking some time to understand who he was referring to; he was talking about Finnick.

“So do I,” said Nick “He and I spent years working together, I’m very surprised that you grew so close to him in only a couple months”.

“And I only got close to you in a couple of weeks… And if I recall correctly you got close to your bunny in a couple of days, is that right?”

“Yeah… kinda… Can I ask a question?”

Zachy tilted his head confused that Nick decided to ask permission for a question despite joking between them for weeks now; judging by the topic they were currently discussing the hyena felt that it was going to be about Finnick or maybe about Judy, but as always he decided to give it a go, all questions are fun.

“Sure man”.

“Did you manage to kiss him?” Nick asked with a smirk despite their melancholic talk only a few seconds ago “I did it as a joke but he always got mad”.

Zachy couldn’t but nervously smile blushing but also knowing that he had to reply to Nick’s question… At least that was what the fox did when he did practically the same but with a question about Judy.

“Well… I tried… but he never wanted them, the ones I gave him where on the cheek and he didn’t like them so it was a good way of teasing him, every time I went for the mouth he got hilariously mad! But him being mad made him even cuter, you… you should have seen it”.

At this moment Nick realized that this question ended up being not appropriate and that he shouldn’t have asked it since Zachy turned away looking at the sea, however, the hyena was not let down by this and instead gave Nick the “reverse UNO card” tactic.

“What about you? Did you kiss Judy?”

“I knew that question was coming! Should have expected that… Anyways, the answer is simply no”.

“Wait, for real?”

“Yeah, we only gave gentle kisses on the forehead as a goodbye, and as I told you I… don’t think… that she’s my girlfriend or anything”.

“Significant other?”

“No. Special partner!”

“More like a special friend”.

Zachy stopped the questionnaire and both of them looked at the sky, with the hyena thinking in his boyfriend and Nick thinking in his “special partner”.

“I miss her as well,” the fox said after staring at the sky for too long.

“We should sleep; I doubt that Mr. Big Bear will pay attention to a random rowboat in the middle of nowhere” suggested Zachy after a pause.

“If you say so chief”.

They both stopped rowing and laid down trying to get some rest for tomorrow’s day, they certainly needed all the energy they could get, both physically and mentally.

“G’night Zach,” he said.

“Night Nick, I love you… I truly do”.

* * *

“Would you like to see one?” Pam repeated after the question took Judy by surprise.

_Yes, no, I mean yes but please no_ Judy thought as she did wanted to know how they looked like and what they truly were but the thought of seeing one was kind of frightening.

“Yes” was what she answered.

The deer told her to go from the bed to the chair in front of the mirror; Judy did as commanded and with the push of a button, the glass suddenly turned into a double-way mirror. On the other side of the mirror, there was a male fennec fox tied to a chair with his eyes closed like if he was dead but with a visible breathing chest with several tubes that seemed to be plugged to his head, but it wasn’t any fennec.

It was Finnick.

The moment the mirror turned one, Judy quickly incorporated forward in shock by the presence of an old partner with the doctor noticing this.

“Do you know him?”

“I… he’s… someone I know” replied the bunny still looking at him.

“Close to you or someone else?”

“He… helped me when I needed him”.

“Well, Judy, he is not what thought he was. Take a look” the doctor pressed another button that activated some sort of x-ray allowing seeing Finnick’s insides.

In the front part of his brain, there was something with the shape of an egg and many tentacles holding onto the cerebral capacity in a glowing green-yellow.

“That’s their true form,” stated Pam “That’s how they truly look like. It’s like if they’re controlling our brains and taking our actions”.

“Get it out,” said Judy still without taking the look away from Finnick.

“We tried,” explained Pam “Surgery, radiation, everything… The only way to kill it is to kill the host”.

The deer then handed Judy something similar to a remote control but this one only had one big red button with white words written on it. ‘EXECUTE’.

“We assume that these things have been inside individuals this whole time, and it was only recently that they woke up. You are not killing your friend, you are killing the thing that split Nick and you apart, the one that took your parents” she concluded and left the bunny with the remote and the fennec in front of him.

Judy didn’t know what to do, she didn’t want to do it, and never wished to defeat them like this though she had to admit it was a great move by part of the aliens, still she didn’t want to be the one who killed Finnick, or apparently according to her, a simple alien with the body of Finnick. She never acted based on anger or revenge, as a cop her job was to bring criminals to justice but this alien species terminated more than half of her town and even her family but two wrongs don’t make a right.

But then there was Nick, the possibility that one of these attacks ended with him was very likely… In the end, the survivors of the three first attacks were the strongest, the ones that knew how to endure everything, and the ones who outlasted the rest in terms of survival, those who were fit against an alien invasion. Those fueled by the loss of their loved ones to eliminate their enemies, thinking in Nick and trying so hard to not think in Finnick…

She pushed the button with all of her strengths.


	13. What Soldiers Do

Nick and Zachy arrived at the shore still looking at the city they left behind and once they touched the ground, none of them could guess what they’re next step should be so maybe going with baby steps should be enough, making fire for the night, taking water to boil it later –who knows where- and maybe making small camps with leaves, or as Zachy said it:

“Out of something”.

Also, the hyena only knew that there was a base miles away from Zootopia’s west but he didn’t exactly know where and that was a major letdown for both of them, especially Nick since now the ‘raid an alien base’ idea didn’t seem so great now.

* * *

Judy didn’t felt relief, or satisfaction, or anything like that when she pressed that button and she didn’t do it for anger or revenge, she simply did it because she wanted all of this to end, for everything to go back the way it was and nothing else. But she ended up being forced to stop thinking in all of that once the doctor Pam said ‘Welcome to the war’ after the whole session was over.

War. If she wanted to be a soldier this would be fine but she was a cop so it wasn’t, and did that mean that they were going to draft 7-17-year-old kids to fight against aliens that had already destroyed entire cities? It didn’t make sense but if she was positive about anything it was that her infiltration plan to the base was working oddly well, with barely anyone making questions about it or her height or… nothing.

After her ‘exam’ finished, Judy was taken to a private room with only had one bed and a toilet and a simple blue uniform that she was required to wear, it felt more like a prison but she was given orders to stay there until further notice. She was kept there for exactly one day which felt like forever and in those 24 hours she received plenty of time to think –once again- in everyone that she cared about, only that right now it wasn’t only in Nick, Cotton was also here and she probably went through the same treatment as her including the Wonderland thing the doctor Pam previously stated.

And now she was going to be thrown into this war?! And she would be currently in the same place Judy was, alone in a room thinking about everything. This wasn’t the government rescuing them; they were drafting children… in a kind way.

But after that long period of 24 hours, she and everyone else was told to head to a specified area in a nice and straight line with a soldier at the front of it to lead all the kids. After walking for only a few minutes they reached a very wide, long, and empty room with a podium at the front of it with the big grizzly bear with an outfit that strongly showed that he was the commander.

They were divided into groups of men and women, with lines of 8 long x 4 wide, with an amount of thirty-two women and thirty-two men in the same room all with the same uniform. Once all of them were perfectly lined up and looking straight ahead, the bear started his speech.

“My name is the commander Vosch… Welcome to Camp Heaven” he said with his very deep but clear voice.

Judy wasn’t paying too much attention to Vosch’s speech, well, maybe she was but not so much and only just a bit since she was trying to see if Cotton was around or just looking at the other “soldiers”, but it was a rather hard task because everyone in the room had their look completely focused on the bear and she is the only one who moved the head would be a bit awkward and maybe raise suspicion so she had no option but to stay like everybody else.

Vosch’s speech was a bit generic and maybe a little weird, mostly it was saying ‘this is our home, not theirs’ like in 10 different ways and encouraging the children and teen by saying stuff like ‘let the loss of your loved ones fuel you’, ‘we always have to grow up’ and other things like that telling them the reasons why they were going to receive a gun.

The speech was finished by one single question:

“Are you ready?” though no one replied so the bear seemed forced to repeat it “Soldiers! Are you ready?!”

This time the room was filled with a powerful battle cry that didn’t sound childish at all, it was a sound that you would hear if ‘innocent’ kids could speak a bit more mature, a sound that only soldiers make.

“Sir, yes, sir!”

Judy was surprised by the suddenness of this or even the synchronization but she was completely sure that she was the only one who didn’t say it but what surprised her -again- was Vosch’s response.

“Good” and with that, he simply left the room and a rhino took his place instead.

There he explained that their next step was going to be training and all the tasks that were about to complete, from hurdles to jogging with heavy bags, to crawling under mud, basically, everything you would need, the shooting aspect was also included despite being only fake guns that inflicted no damage whatsoever but it was also there. The entire day was about training and only training until practically 10:00 pm.

After all of that, they were told to head back once again to their rooms and that tomorrow they were going to show the results and be assigned to a squad, where the rest of the training would take place.

With that finished, Judy returned to her room exhausted and just ready to sleep and since thinking where Nick or Cotton could be was not going to work she just decided to think of what the results could be, all of that training was something that she already so she passed most of it without difficulty but still was tired, she also knew that she was one of the soldiers with a 9/10 aim since everyone was just starting to use guns for their first time in their lives.

The bunny was getting ready to sleep until the door opened revealing a familiar figure.

The Commander Vosch of course.

She acted quickly and out of nature standing up quickly giving a firm salute as any soldier would do.

“Commander, sir,” she said.

“You can just call me Vosch, Judy” the bear quietly replied with still a deep voice but a very different tone than he used from his previous speech.

“Excuse me, sir?” Judy asked still not fully understanding the situation.

“I like you, Judy,” the bear continued “They’ve said that you were outstanding during the practice”.

“Yeah…” the bunny replied a bit scared.

“And the doctor Pam told me that you have a friend, that sadly you have split apart after the first wave”.

“Wave?”

“Yes, the first wave the lights are out, the second wave the tides strike, the third wave there’s a pandemic and the fourth wave they invade us”.

“Will there be a fifth wave?”

Vosch chuckled with his tone going a bit friendly.

“Of course not, not now, why do you think we’re here? But again, Judy, I like you and I want us to be friends so because I know that you were brilliant during the training so I’m going to give you a small advantage”.

“Sure thing, what is it” she replied trying to contain her excitement.

“Tomorrow, once the results are revealed, you will get the privilege of choosing one person to go to your squad”.

Judy could only act slightly surprised but inside she was taking this a huge opportunity to pick Cotton and bring her to her squad so she could be able to protect her.

“How many squads will there be?” Judy asked.

“Plenty,” replied Vosch again with his serious tone “Each of them will have five members plus its Alpha leader; these leaders will be chosen from the top best of the results of tomorrow… And you are already one of them”.

Now Judy was truly surprised, she had always received orders from Bogo and then she would do it and that was exactly what she had been doing since she arrived at Camp Heaven but giving orders herself? It wasn’t going to be pretty but it was something that she seemed herself qualified since she was the only one with experience and because she was an adult.

How couldn’t Vosch know this? It’s okay if the children or teens didn’t since they probably didn’t care but Pam and Vosch seemed pretty fine about acting as if they’ve never seen how an adult bunny looks like.

“That’s… amazing” Judy said still surprised.

“I just wanted you to know this, I bet whoever is in your squad will be very lucky,” he said leaving the room but not before without saying goodbye.

“Good night soldier Hopps, good luck tomorrow”.

“Good night sir… Vosch” replied Judy still with a salute but smiling.

“Oh, and Judy,” replied the bear already outside the room remembering something “We are going to be their first and final wave” And with that he left closing the door behind.

This talk with her commander definitely eased Judy’s mood making her realize that probably he wasn’t as cruel or dictating as she thought he was and maybe he was just a commander who knew when he needed to be tough and when he didn’t.

Also right now she couldn’t do anything to change her situation; she didn’t want to be a meter-maid when she first arrived to Zootopia but when she was assigned to, she did the best she could and that’s what she needed to do right now, to just embrace it, to accept it and fight her way through it and to most importantly protect the ones she loved, because at the end…

That’s what soldiers do.


	14. To Kill or not to Kill

The next day for Judy was a bit different, she and everyone that took part in the same training as her, was in a very big room that looked like it was part of a wedding, school prom or restaurant including the lunch tables and everything, all of them were randomly seated across the room with big TV's spread all around hanging from the ceiling so everyone could take a look at the results that were seconds away from being given.

Judy took a look around realizing that there were more people that the group she was in yesterday, approximately like 100 children in one big lunch room ready to receive their next instruction because that what younglings do receive instructions.

It was first announced that the squad leaders' results were going to appear first and that if you saw your name come up you had to go to a small but long podium that was next to one of the walls of the room, it didn't have numbers, decoration or anything, it was just a small podium for you to get on top of it and be there.

For the leaders there was no result, it was just simply their name, their picture –which Judy wondered when they took it- followed by a "Please go to the podium" message. Judy's name came up third and she went not being surprised since Vosch told her about it, and since this wasn't graduation or anything like that, there was no clapping nor cheering, it was just complete silence with everyone waiting for their name to come up.

Once the squad leaders list was done, Judy could now take a look at who was around her and she could see 20 leaders of different species going from elephants to wolves and such, a few seconds later a soldier came to escort all of them into another room, one that was filled with only beds and many columns.

The bunny had seen this type of room many times in movies or stuff like that, it was the place where every morning you would have to stand up straight and listen to whoever was in charge of it.

However this space wasn't as big as the last one, there were 12 beds long on each side of the room with a total of 24, the soldier that was with them gave all of the leaders a badge, it was a simple gold badge with a star in the middle and a number below the star, afterward, the soldier took 14 of the leaders to another room leaving Judy and five more there standing there telling them to wait.

For a solid minute, nobody moved and Judy took this time to remember how the first time she was given an award felt and how different she was feeling this time, for some reason despite knowing that she had to focus in the 'now' and what was currently happening she still couldn't let go those memories. A few moments later the same soldier came back asking for the soldier Hopps to come over.

Judy knew exactly what it was and she didn't need to think about whom she was going to choose but just in case, she wanted to look like if she was thinking about it so hard given that still, the bunny did not want to give away any suspicious activity. She got taken to a rather small room compared to the previous ones, this one looked pretty much like a principal office or… like Bogo's office.

A chair, a desk and a chair on the other side only with Vosch instead of Bogo in front of Judy, the bear silently handed her an archive with a list of every member that was in the "lunch" room.

"This is every soldier from our first two groups," stated Vosch "As I said, take your pick".

Judy flipped the papers looking for Cotton and seeing how these "soldiers" were sorted by score number in alphabetical order and no pictures, with the scores ranging from 1 to 20. She assumed that all of the squad leaders scored at 20 since the highest rated were only 18, she was surprised that she had to flip through so many pages to find her niece with only a 5 score point.

"This one sir," she said pointing at Cotton's name.

"Cotton Hopps?" asked Vosch confused trying to confirm her curious decision.

"That's correct sir" she replied nervously knowing that it was way too suspicious.

"She has the same last name as you, is she a relative?"

"No, not at all, she's just… nope".

"Are you sure? Why did you choose her, she scored an 8" Vosch said a bit more threatening than the last night.

"Well sir, you'll see, you told me that whoever was in my squad was going to be very lucky and since she is a rabbit it gives me a small aura of trust and... as you said I can teach her some things" Judy came up with a perfect excuse trying to keep a smile through the entire conversation.

"Interesting… You feel that she reminds you of home?"

Thank you Vosch for asking that question.

"Yes! Yes, that's right, couldn't have said it better".

"Very well… is your choice," he replied loosing up the tone a bit "Go back to the bedrooms and you'll meet your squad in a few hours".

"Very good sir," she said and left the room with an extreme amount of relief, like a bag of rocks coming from her shoulder.

And so, he returned to the room where she saw all of the leaders in their beds with some of them doing light exercises, there were only four people there including her and she guessed that the beds were for, obviously, the squad members. She ended up going to the bed far away, next to the wall, and assumed that her complete squad would be here at any second.

* * *

Nick got suddenly woken up with a tremendous panic attack only to find out that it was a nightmare, that it wasn't real, and that whatever it happened was nothing but a creation from his brain… again. Zachy, however, noticed this and tried to calm him down despite knowing well what the nightmares were about.

"Another bad dream?" asked the hyena.

"The same actually," replied Nick lightly gasping "Vosch appears, I get muzzled, then he kills me".

"Yeah… but it was just a dream and now we have to take as much sunlight we can".

"You know is the sunset right?"

Zachy looked at the sky shocked about the realization that he was right, their sleep scheduled got pretty messy after they decided that sleeping during the day and moving through the night was safer, of course sometimes when one of them slept the other one had to be the watchman, the sad moment was when nature got the better of them and both ended sleeping.

So it wasn't any surprise that they would maybe sleep around noon and wake up during the dusk like right now, only that going through the night was so spooky and made them extremely paranoic.

"I see…" Zachy still looked at the sky as if he was frustrated for it "Nothing new right? Anyways we still have to move".

"Why?"

"Because… Because maybe your nightmares will come true… Metaphorically, I mean that maybe Vosch will find us… Let's just go Nick; I don't want to stay in one place all the time".

They both agreed and tried to once again go for the base, every time Nick thought about literally anything regarding the actual plan instead of just the premise, Zachy just replied with the same motto "Don't think" which was driving the fox nuts since going by that philosophy in an apocalypse was now very dangerous and kind of ignorant.

But this wasn't because Zachy decided to be a jerk –or maybe he was- but because it was him who did not want to think about it because he did know that what they were planning to do was not a plan at all and it was practically suicide. "Raiding" an alien base without the proper equipment was already insane, doing it without knowing exactly what to do was something that only these two could do.

And still, most of the time Zachy lost track of where he was and couldn't figure out exactly what direction they needed to go so those were the moments where they decided to take a nap and mess up their sleep schedule.

Nonetheless, they continued their so-called adventure walking through the forest until they reached a road, a highway to be precise with a lot of completely useless cars, some of them broken but luckily without any bodies since it was the least that Nick & Zachy wanted to watch right now, the hyena thought it was a good idea to follow the road since if the kids were taken through a bus, then the base has to be connected to a road.

"But to which side we go?" asked Nick.

Honestly, Zachy wasn't sure since he only knew where the base was located on the map, not how to go. But while thinking on t h spotted a building far away, it wasn't _that_ far but it was far enough to not distinguish what it was from their distance.

Anyways they decided to venture into that building before the continued and to see if they could find a map or anything that may help them along the way, once they approached enough they found that it was a gas station along with a restaurant, a long one, it had the basic stuff you would need in a road, like a small souvenir shop and the actual restaurant as well as a garage probably to fix things like tires or oil changes.

"I'll go to the kitchen, you head for the garage and try to find something useful," said Nick.

"But why?! We can't split in this trip, you know we can't" protested Zachy.

"We can, and we're not leaving that far, we will be just around the corner".

"I still disagree, if we had something to communicate with I would do it but we don't," said the hyena a bit more aggressively.

"Well… if you want we can make a sound or word to know if any of us in trouble".

"Great," he replied sarcastically "And that is..?"

"If I shout your name, then I'm in trouble and if you shout my name then that's because you are in trouble" Nick replied followed by a smug walking towards the restaurant

"Just make sure you have your gun on guard" Zachy left pretty annoyed but heading for the garage anyway.

_No need to._ The fox thought to have no intentions in firing anyone

Nick made sure to explore the store very carefully and even finding a "you are here" type of map that he was sure Zachy would now how to use, he headed to the kitchen a bit scared thinking he was going to find bodies but luckily he didn't, there was nothing there that was of use since the lack of electricity made most of the food go to waste. A few seconds later he began to hear something in the distance, like mumbling.

He stopped the search and focused only on hearing the sound and he noticed how it was becoming more loudly, the only word he could identify was "what" but nothing else.

Then next thing he heard was a shotgun that he knew exactly well that it was coming from the garage.

Quickly, he stormed out of the restaurant going to the garage expecting the worst and set up his gun in case of self-defense needed but in the end, he didn't, what he found in the garage was not what he thought but still something less pretty.

Nick lowered his gun when he saw that in the corner of the room there was a wolf with a big wound and blood coming from his chest indicating that he was dead with Zachy pointing his rifle at him with a look of horror in his eyes that could only signify one thing.

Zachy killed that wolf.


	15. Welcome to the Squad

Nick didn't know what to do. Zachy didn't know what to do, the only thing they _could_ do was to stare at the dead wolf in front of them, for Nick he was just seeing a dead man and the murderer but for Zachy he was seeing _the_ dead man himself killed.

"Wha-?" said Nick confused before cutting himself off, he knew that the least thing Zachy wanted right now was a pep-talk.

"I thought… he was one of them" Zachy's voice cracked up trying to get the confession out of his chest "I thought he was going to kill me".

Nick was trying to come up with a response but right now he couldn't think of anything that would better the situation… Because there was probably nothing that would.

"But he didn't" was what he said.

"No, he did not" Zachy lowered his rifle very slowly still being tense from the situation "Let's get out of here".

"Just like that?" Nick asked genuinely but regretted doing it instantly.

"Yes. Nick. Just like that! What do we need to acknowledge?! That I, Zachy Lyon, killed someone?! Because I think that that's pretty clear at this point! Okay? I thought he was one of them but he wasn't and just because I was too scared to die an innocent man just lost his life! Because of me!"

Nick was sure that the hyena was venting and decided not to reply hoping he would continue his rant.

 _Zachary Lyon?_ Nick thought. _So that's his full name._

"Sorry Nick; I shouldn't have yelled," Zachy apologized after calming down a bit "I…" he looked again at the wolf.

Nick smiled a bit feeling a lot for the hyena.

"Com' 'ere," said Nick opening his arms for a hug letting Zachy approach and falling onto him.

The last time Nick did this was over five months ago when her little bunny admitted what she did wrong during _that_ case, the big difference, besides the circumstances, was the size, Judy was smaller than Nick was but Zachy was a bit taller than him yet still that didn't stop it from happening.

"Don't apologize, big boy, you needed to vent".

 _No kisses this time_ he thought as well.

The hyena looked back at the wolf along with his rifle breaking the hug and retrieving the weapon disconcerting Nick for a second.

"You're still going to bring it?" he asked.

"I don't feel like I have a choice" Zachy hesitated a bit but still decided to grab it for precautions.

"Well Mr. Too-Big-For-A-Hug, I found a map back in the restaurant that may help us," Nick said trying to lighten the situation with Zachy following him.

"Alright, alright, I'll… see what I can do".

"Go ahead, I'll catch you in a second- And there isn't anyone… you need to worry about".

Zachy gave him a serious look before heading out to the restaurant trying to localize themselves.

After the hyena completely left, Nick decides to investigate something after he noticed a glimmering coming from the deceased wolf's hand that was covering something, he removed his hand only find a collar, a necklace to be precise a bit too big compared to the common ones but it was a piece of a metal heart.

What picked Nick's attention was that it was one of those collars that have a small image inside them; he opened the heart-shaped figure to find a message that was written by a possibly 6-year-old kid with very simple yet powerful words:

**LOV U DAD**

* * *

After waiting for a couple of hours there was an announcement telling all the leaders that their members were about to be introduced and they all needed to be ready, this caused for the three members to acquire a 'firm' position with Judy quickly following them. Minutes later the door of the room opened revealing five little animal cubs with the same outfit and the same badge with a similar number, in this case, they had the number "1". Along with them an otter soldier came simply catching the attention of the leader and introducing the team.

Judy checked at her badge noticing that it had the "4" number so she guessed that her members should be wearing a badge with the same number as her.

Moments later, after the members for the squad 1, 2, and 3 were done, the next members approached letting Judy see for the first time with who she was working.

A young grizzly bear, a tiger that was probably a teenager, a sheep, a small fox that reminded her a lot about Nick and finally, and the only female besides Judy herself, Cotton. When Judy saw her she tried not to show any excitement which she managed to pull out pretty well but when Cotton saw her, she only showed a smile and remained quiet instead of a usual cheerful greeting.

The five cubs made a line in front of Judy with the otter soldier introducing them one by one.

"Officer Hopps, your squad will be composed by Peyton Bailey, Ryder Todd, Thali Stewart, Dante Fischer, and Cotton Hopps. Tomorrow at 0600 hours you must be ready for your next training" he mentioned them respectively in a very straightforward way and left the room.

With Judy simply standing there and the five kids looking at her it was a little bit awkward, an awkwardness which she broke by approaching the first kid in the line, Peyton, and crouching, looking and smiling at the small chubby bear that seemed a bit confused by Judy's smile acting as if he had never seen a smile in his life.

Judy didn't pay attention to this and limited to lightly tap his shoulder keeping her kind smile.

"If we want to be strong in this training we're gonna need some rest don't you say?" she asked and then proceeded to talk to the entire group "That goes for everyone, you can choose whatever bed you want… Just don't choose the one next to the wall, that's mine" she finished with a chuckle.

Her squad did as ordered with Cotton choosing the bed next to Judy which gave her a bit of relief. Once everyone was in their self-assigned beds they all continue to look at her.

"You can call me Judy" she stated with a smile.

"I saw you in the training," said the tiger, Ryder, leaning back in his bed "You were pretty impressive".

"Well… thanks, if you want to share it can you tell me how well did you perform?"

"Good enough, but I'm boring I want to hear from you! Judging on your performance I'm pretty sure we can be the best squad of everyone!"

Judy opened her mouth to reply but got interrupted by Dante, the fox cub.

"Do you know shooting?"

"Huh?" she replied surprised by the question "Do you mean like… guns?"

"Yeah, how else would we defeat the bad guys?"

"Well…" continued Judy "Yeah, I know some techniques but to defeat the 'bad guys' we're gonna need more than just some guns".

"What else would we need?" asked Thali, the sheep.

"The most important thing could be teamwork, we need to be able to know each other and work together, as long as we're together-"

"-Nothing's going to destroy us right?" Ryder completed the sentence for her "If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that…"

"Hey, we don't need to start with a bad foot," interrupted Dante "If you say that she was good during the training then I bet she knows about this stuff".

"Yeah, you could…" Judy stopped to think about her training back in the police academy "Say that I have experience. Anyways, I still need to know what ae your weaknesses and strengths, that way I will know what I should teach you individually".

"Well," said Peyton with a shy tone "I'm a bit slow".

"That's okay," replied Judy always smiling "At least I know who I should expect at the back".

Judy looked around checking the other leaders who were giving orders as well as interacting with their squad.

"Are you two related?" Ryder asked again pointing at Cotton "She doesn't seem to talk that much".

"I was going to ask the same thing" Thali agreed.

"What?" said Judy "No, we're not related just because we're bunnies and you shouldn't mock someone for not wanting to say anything… Anyways-"

"I never said you were related just because you were bunnies," continued Ryder "I mean, the soldier said she was a Hopps and you are-" he stopped himself as if realization struck him leaving the topic aside.

"How do you know to handle a gun?" asked Peyton.

Judy sighed and chuckled.

"You guys ask too many things".

* * *

The sun was already setting down and the hustling duo decided that maybe they should try to sleep both tonight at the same time, they didn't know why but the urge of it was strong, they set up a "bed" just by leaves they could find but it wasn't enough or near as comfy as a normal bed.

As the night fell and the brightness of the sky returned, they did nothing but to lie down and just stare at the stars and try to think for the first time about their insane plan.

"What about defenses?" asked Nick "They're a highly advanced alien species so they must have something".

"Honestly I've been thinking about it too and we can either speculate or go in blind because if we come up with ten different scenarios but then use the eleventh one then all of that planning was pointless" replied Zachy.

"So..?" Nick still asked.

"So… we need to think way too many things".

"Maybe we don't, let's just go for the basics like… uh… every base has some guards so we should expect some guards…"

"Cool, what else?"

"I don't know, why don't you make suggestions?"

"If you insist…"

There was a long pause that made Nick question if the hyena was going to say something or if he was just teasing.

"Honestly," said Zachy after the awkward silence "Maybe this base isn't the alien base we think it is, maybe its just a normal one and we're doing this for nothing".

"But maybe it is" Nick replied smiling.

Zachy sighed in frustration with not saying anything else.

"You know what? Who cares if it is a normal base? What matters is that we've been surviving the waves together, one by one, maybe when we arrive we won't find aliens but we may find more things that can help us… You never know… Now let's sleep".

"I don't want to".

"Yeah, I can understand".

None of them said anything for about a solid minute simply staring at the stars thinking internally what they could do.

"Remember the last time when we were looking at the sky like this?" asked Zachy "Geez, I miss my van".

"Your van?! Excuse me but you only used it for five months, in any case-"

"Our van, are you happy?"

"Maybe".

While that was the end of the conversation, Nick and Zachy were thinking in something more than just the silly plan of raiding a base, the same thought of the night they watched the stars for the first time after the first wave was through their minds again but a bit different.

"By the way, I didn't know your full name was Zachary Lyon" said Nick.

"Go to sleep"


	16. Start of the Training

Despite that neither Nick nor Zachy wanted to sleep, they both ended up doing it with luckily a night without dreams waking up early the next morning and deciding to continue with their "adventure".

However, after wandering for around half an hour they found, not too far from the gas station-restaurant, an abandoned building, not one of those old, scary, and spooky buildings in movies but simply… an abandoned one-floor house and well they had been sleeping in "abandoned houses" during this invasion but most of them had an owner.

But this one was different, this was a house that they knew that it didn't have any owner. How? Simple. This one was empty. Not empty but most of the important things weren't there, for example, there was a kitchen but no food, bed stands but not matrasses, closets but no clothes meaning that the owners probably moved somewhere else in a very quick fashion helping the duo determine that they left when the aliens arrived.

"So we're staying here?" asked Nick after inspecting the house.

"I think we should… we have a restaurant close to us so we should be good at food and such".

"As long as we have _separate_ beds I'm okay".

"Why is that?" asked Zachy sarcastically.

"You know well why, I don't need a hyena bigger than me next to me in a bed every time I want to sleep".

"C'mon Nick! I slept next to Finnick and he was way shorter than you… I'm just used to having a cuddling partner".

"I still want my bed".

Zachy sighed but went off to see if he could find any matrasses left until he returned to Nick with a "brilliant" idea.

"Please, can we sleep in shifts? I mean one day in different beds and one day sleeping together?"

"Two days sleeping apart, one day sleeping together, but okay…"

* * *

After Judy was introduced to her squad **[1]** , all of the squads in the room went to sleep waiting for the next morning for more training, Judy knew that all of them needed to be awake by 6 am and could be a tough challenge since one does not have control how long they will sleep but Judy had been doing it since she joined the ZPD back in Zootopia.

She managed to wake up even earlier, setting up her bed and waking up Cotton very gently telling her to follow every little thing she said with her agreeing.

"Thank you, Judy," Cotton said quietly hugging her aunt.

Judy couldn't understand why Cotton became so shy or quiet between the moment she left her in the circle at now but she could guess that if her niece went through the same treatment as she did including all that wacky Wonderland thing then it may have an explanation.

Anyway, after getting Cotton ready and explaining the basics she then proceeded to wake up in a very different way the rest of her squad, most of them were annoyed by the sudden awakening but neither whined nor complained after everything was set up all of the "soldiers" in the room formed a straight line and the same otter soldier from yesterday returned.

This time he instructed very direct the rules and what they needed to do, once again in a very straightforward manner.

The instructions were pretty much the same as the previous training but with additional information, this time the course was going to be slightly different, and the leaders were required to guide their squad through the course and they were not going to compete yet. In a nice and neat line, everyone in the room followed the soldier that led them into the outside.

Then they were taken to a field the size of a football stadium that made Judy wonder how big the entire base was since almost every room seemed to have unlimited space.

On that field there was the course they were going to go through today and Judy could see that it was a bit different. First, it was a pool where the soldier instructed that they needed to retrieve something, a very deep pool, then it came the typical crawling in the mud section which wasn't new, then there was a swinging section with a lot of vines with more mud below and finally a long running-only section where you had to… run… very fast.

Four sections were in the whole field indicating that only four squads could run at a time meaning that it was probably going to be split into two teams with four squads each.

"Across the next seven days, you will be accumulating points from different tests, at the end of the seven days the top three squads will be the very first in our battle against them. The bottom two squads will be punished and I can guarantee that it won't be easy" the otter explained.

_Pretty sure it won't._ Judy thought, remembering her academy training days, having an idea how this 'punishment' was going to be, she guessed that she was going to have like one minute to strategize but she was wrong since the otter was asking each squad leader who was going to go first through the course with almost no time to think through it.

When the soldier approached her and asked who was going first she simply said the first one that came to mind.

"Ryder, sir".

"Why am I not surprised?" said the tiger "But I'm ready to do it".

"You will have to go along him throughout the course".

Judy nodded and the soldier waited for everyone to get into their positions, then he proceeded to ring the whistle and start the race.

The four contestants began their competition diving headfirst into the pool, it was clear that each leader chose their best member since the dive was almost simultaneously, Judy chose Ryder first because that's what she just felt it that way. It was an awkward moment because while the racers were underwater you couldn't cheer or give instructions but it wasn't needed since the four contestants went to the surface with a rock knife-shaped –the object they needed to retrieve-.

The next part: Mud. It wasn't so hard, again it seemed like everyone was coordinated except when starting to… crawl, the net was at a very low level and Ryder managed to cross the section with only seconds behind the first-place runner, a ferret.

Ryder faced his challenge in the third section that were the vines, keeping the balance wasn't his strength, plus he needed momentum which he was currently lacking. He had everything he shouldn't have at the moment: lack of balance, momentum, agility, and a light a body, yet he tried to reach the next vine and the next one until he finally reached the final track in third place with seconds in front of the fourth-place runner.

The running section was easy for him but yet he reached the finish line in the same third place.

The scoring point was easy to remember, you get there first you get one point, you get second, you get two points, with the lowest amount "winning".

The next one up was Dante, the fox only struggled with the pool section but he had great agility that Judy noticed that helped him to get through the mud and vines catching the very first place with only seconds of advantage.

Judy chose Peyton as the next one where he faced almost the same mistakes as Ryder but unlike him, he managed to get the vine part pretty quick or relatively quick but it didn't matter as the running track was his demise for being a bit slower than the other two competitors ending in third place.

For Thali, he performed pretty well much to Judy's shock since he didn't say that much yesterday, the mud and vines were a bit tough but everything else had a decent performance finishing in second place.

The final runner was Cotton. Which was probably the saddest run among everyone, not the worst, she was one of the only two contestants that had to go back to the surface in the pool to get some air and moved very slowly across the mud and was one among the five kids that failed the vines, her placement ended up being the last one not even close to the third-place finisher.

Of course, right after it, Judy's first instinct was to console her which she immediately did but surprisingly Cotton simply shrugged it off with no signs of being sad and went straight to Judy to receive and give a tight hug.

"Don't worry guys, you all did a pretty good job and… congratulations" said Judy to her team once the challenge was over.

Afterward, the squads were told to know head to the dining room -the same room where the squad leaders were announced- to have their meal of the day… their only meal of the day. When the four squads arrived each one sat on their table and were served a simple soup but enough of it in a decent-sized bowl.

"That was pretty pathetic," commented Ryder as soon as they started eating "Everyone except for Mr. Dant over here did it pretty bad".

"Really, Ryder?" said Judy "Are you only going to be that negative?"

"But he has a point though," commented Dante "I'm not gonna praise myself but we weren't the best squad today".

"So are we having a consensus that we all agree that Dante did it better? Because I agree" said Peyton.

"I'm down for it" concluded Thali while quickly eating the soup.

"Guys, guys," Judy sighed and stopping eating "Please, acting like this will get us nowhere and I don't know why you would choose to be so negative".

"I'm sorry Hopps," said Ryder "If you still haven't learned at this point that thinking positively will get you somewhere then you must have had a pretty easy way right?"

Once again the group started to agree.

"Guys, I've been through some very bad things but I don't want to turn this into a competition on who has the worst life, I just know that if we just think on giving up then we-"

"But we are not talking about giving up," interrupted Dante "We're just being realistic, that's the difference".

There was a short pause with Judy eating a spoon of the soup before continuing talking.

"My point is that we don't need to focus on that! For example, today I saw many things like the fact Dante is very agile or that Thali can do much more than what I thought, and as long as we focus on those kinds of stuff we'll do it great".

"What happens if we do it great anyways?" asked Peyton in a genuine curious manner.

"I think that we get to kill the baddies" completed Ryder.

"And do you like that?" asked Cotton surprising everyone including Judy that she finally engaged herself into a conversation but the tiger shrugged this off and simply answered her question.

"Maybe, maybe not, it's not that I have many important things to do right now".

That was the end of the conversation for now until like a minute later Dante's ears perked up and said something very interesting that catches Judy's attention.

"I think I heard that there will be shooting practice tomorrow".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] - Zachy killing the wolf in the store as well as the introduction of Judy's squad happen in the same day which means that Nick & Zachy finding the house as well as today's training also happen in the same day that would be a Sunday, the start of the week


	17. She's a Police Officer

"Sunday, failure, Monday... it'll be a matter of time to find out," said Ryder getting up for today's training.

Judy sighed, being with a pack like was exhausting, the only one that didn't face a problem like that was Cotton and you could say that Thali as well since they both were the ones that didn't say much, in fact, right now Judy was missing working with someone like Nick, someone that no matter in what case he was the positive attitude would always be there.

It almost made Judy feel that she wasn't that good as a leader.

Almost.

Because today that was going to change, she was the only one in the entire base among the "soldiers" that knew how to handle a gun, everyone else was a rookie with it, maybe today she could teach her squad some things and maybe rank up a bit in the leaderboards.

But as Cotton asked on their lunch last night, does she want that? Defeating the 'baddies'? Okay, maybe yes, defeating the baddies and therefore making the world a better place –or better said a place again- would be nice but going on a full-on war with but some kids and casual guns killing everyone like a cold-blooded person was… not nice.

Also, the fact that the government was using children among everyone was extremely questionable to Judy but what was concerning her was about the adults. What happened to them? She sneaked because she wanted to be with Cotton but the soldiers said that they were going to bring them soon… Right?

"If what Dante heard yesterday is true then we're going to shoot today," said Peyton, "You say you have experience?"

"Yes, I do," Judy replied, "If you don't believe then you will soon or later".

It did happen as Dante told everyone it would; today's practice was a shooting practice with five different types of guns. The targets had a wolf shape and their scoring point worked the same as a dart target, the closer to the middle you hit, the more points you'll get.

Unlike the training yesterday where the leaders were only spectators, today and every day that followed they would also participate but once all of their members had already done it. This sparked the competitive side of Judy, the side that made her want to prove to others what she was truly capable of.

For today's task, she decided that Dante should go first based on his previous performance.

The leaders were given thirty seconds to prepare the "students" how to handle a gun, the position required, and such, then they would shoot five bullets out of a simple handgun with the security gear for this first task.

"Listen D," said Ryder "Shooting has very little to do with agility so-"

He was quickly interrupted by the five quick and consecutive shoots of Dante that scored all in the middle except for one that hit only a few inches apart. The fox took off his goggles and headphones handing them to Judy.

"There's your agility… R".

Judy sighed once again but couldn't help but chuckle if this grew up to be a small rivalry then maybe she could use that as motivation for the two of them if it didn't, even better since she didn't need to worry about it.

"Ryder, you're next," she said "And if you think that handing a gun has nothing to do with agility… then you clearly haven't touched one or even watched some movies".

"No, I haven't touched any gun and honestly I don't care that much for movies… I still want to know where or how did you get your skills"

"Not important, now, I want to focus on your aim, let's see if you can shoot as fast as you can create nicknames"

The four members behind Ryder laughed at the bunny's comment and while the tiger noticed it he just rolled his eyes and continued to his current task. Unlike Dante, he only got the second highest point (or lower in this case) but according to him, it was perfect.

Peyton, Thali, and Cotton didn't have much luck, especially the latter as Judy didn't want to teach her how to kill someone but she tried not to think about it, anyways, all of them scored the lowest possible with only like 2 shots near the higher points.

"Why does Dante need to keep practicing?" asked Peyton when their second round was about to go.

"Different guns, different techniques" replied Judy.

The rest of the training was pretty similar, Dante always was the one that scored higher but not with the best score, with Ryder following him, the other three limited to just doing their best because it was clear that they needed more practice.

But then it was the time when the leaders needed to shoot as well and all of her members were completely focused on Judy who looked at them smirking while getting her headgear ready.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five shots, all in the same spot with only inches apart leaving her squad in true shock making Judy grin a little and tossing the gun in the air and catching it again like a coin.

Once this round was over, it was once again lunchtime where today it was a simple PB&J sandwich… Yep, just one.

This time the squad sit on their table and didn't say anything regarding the practice and they were just simply enjoying their bread awkwardly looking at each other until Judy decided to break the silence.

"We need to have a name".

Everyone in the table looked confused with Peyton and Cotton tilting their head.

"A name?" asked Thali.

"A team name," Judy explained "Right now we're simply squad #4 but I feel that if we make ourselves our own squad name it can make us feel as a team".

Ryder was confused, Dante cringed a little, Peyton and Thali looked each other and Cotton looked like it didn't understood what Judy said.

"That's very childish Hopps," said Ryder finishing his sandwich "I don't know how you've come so far".

"I say the Hopps squad" suggested Cotton not paying attention to Ryder's comment surprising everyone else.

"Okay that…" Judy stopped to think about it smiling "sounds like the end of a tongue twister but if nobody suggest anything else I'll take it… and I don't think you like it judging by your looks".

The four remaining members looked each other realizing that, yes, apparently they needed a name before sticking to the one Cotton suggested.

"How about the Dante Squad?" said Thali "He's kinda carrying the team".

"He has a point though," said Ryder "You should watch you back D. I propose the gun squad just because of Jud's skills".

"You just said it was childish" Dante complained.

"It doesn't look like I'm going to evade it anyway".

"I think that 'The Squad' sounds good," suggested Peyton finishing his sandwich "It means that we are the definitive squad among everyone".

 _Finally a good one._ Judy thought "Are you going to suggest a name Dante?"

The fox took the last bite of his meal and swallowed it before answering.

"What about the Wild Squad?"

Everyone immediately knew that it was the best name so far adding bonus points for Dante's status of 'the one carrying team', for Judy the first thing that came to mind was, of course, Nick Wilde and that adopting that name for the squad could work as some sort of "memorial".

"I gotta admit, that is a good one but do you wanna hear mine?" nobody replied waiting for Judy to continue which she gladly did "The Fifth Wave".

This confused everyone in the table with Peyton asking why would she choose such a weird name.

"It's simple. Commander Vosch told me that there will be no more waves, no more attacks from the aliens, and that symbolically we were going to be _their_ first wave… So I could say that we are the fifth wave, from a certain point of view"

Everyone looked at each other trying to process Judy's thought until Dante came up with a solution.

"Let's put it to a vote, whoever gets more votes will win, easy".

Cotton and Dante voted for Judy's option: "The Fifth Wave"

While everyone else voted for Dante's option: "The Wild Squad".

"So it is decided," said Ryder "The Wild Squad sounds cheesy, and it doesn't reflect our current status so… Let's go to our rooms".

And so, the six members of the 'Wild Squad' headed to their rooms so they could get the rest needed for tomorrow's exercise which they all had no knowledge of… On their way to the bedrooms Judy got a brilliant idea and simply told the rest to stay in the rooms and wait for her.

But still the five members made their way to their respective beds and once everyone was "in position" they looked each other with an expression that they were waiting for someone to speak about the elephant in the room.

"How do you think she got so good at shooting?" asked Ryder.

"She must've had a very skilled parent" added Peyton.

"Or someone taught her how to do it" said Thali.

"That's pretty much what I just said".

"I have a theory," said Dante "It's very simple, very easy to understand and that is: She's not who we think she is".

A bit of silence.

"So…" asked Ryder teasing "She is… what? A double agent with a secret identity that we, as a team, will need to crack the case to reveal an evil corporation?"

"Ray," said Cotton who still hadn't got everyone names "You shouldn't say that".

"Why not? Do you know cotton is a very fluffy material? I feel like your name matches your personality".

"I'm just saying that you should stop talking about her like that, she's not what you said".

"Oh really? Then what?" Ryder continued not expecting the following answer or a serious answer for that matter.

"A police officer, of course"


	18. What's your Story?

Tuesday: Combat.

Physical combat, face to face in a small but big enough area similar to a dojo only with grey walls instead of the vivid colors a dojo would probably have. Yesterday Judy tried to see if she could ask Vosch what today's test was going to be to see if she could give some tips beforehand to her team.

She didn't say the reason but it was not necessary since Vosch just casually told her that it was going to be fighting, Judy decided to use this advantage to train or give some tips to the 'Wild Squad' before the day came, however when she arrived at the main room and told her squad what was going to happen tomorrow most of them couldn't keep the focus on her training since everyone was still shocked on what Cotton told her.

And maybe they were scared to speak because nobody said anything during her mini-lessons, and as for Ryder he wanted to discuss it but not in front of everyone but he never knew when that private moment could come.

Still, Judy never noticed anything different in her students and they tried to pay attention to the instructions she was giving for tomorrow's day.

Now, they were heading to the room where they would be supervised by a soldier –like in any other training practice- and then two members of the squad would face each other in any way they wanted to as long as no major injuries were made and if they pleased they could ask to one of the supervisors to accompany and teach them some things; the leader was only forced to participate in at least one round but if he wanted to, he could do more of them.

Each "round" lasted for ten minutes and there were eight areas available in the room each with its mattress to fight on, meaning that only two pairs per squad could fight at the same time.

Once all of these instructions were given, the leaders needed to choose their first two pairs and already had these two in mind.

"Cotton & Thali, and Dante & Peyton," she said with Ryder being surprised that he wasn't picked first but he didn't complain.

The contestants put into their positions with the remaining two squad members sitting on the floor spectating, when the whistle ring the four fighters started their ten-minute round with the leaders analyzing their movements.

Or at least, most of the leaders. Seconds after the match started Ryder saw this as an opportunity to finally address the issue brought up by Cotton yesterday only that he didn't know how.

"So… Judy," he managed to say "How did you become such an expert at shooting?"

"This question again? I told you I can't reveal my secrets" she said looking completely at Cotton.

"Really? We had discussions yesterday about it when you were gone" he said with Judy now looking at him.

"Is that important for you guys? What's the big deal?"

"Fluff said that you are… you were a police officer".

Judy's ears dropped now looking back to Cotton with wide eyes sighing.

"So it _is_ true" Ryder confirmed judging by her reaction.

"Okay yes, I was a police officer and that's how I got my shooting abilities… Satisfied?"

Ryder shook his head.

"This only raises more questions. How did you get here and… why are you the only adult?"

Judy sighed again looking now at Dante's performance noticing that he used a more defensive approach using his arms.

"I don't think I should be talking about it…" she replied, "Also it's not like you have been an open book as well".

"Do I need to be? Not anyone needs to know exactly who I am".

The bunny looked at him with a pity smile.

"Well… you sound like the kid at school that would have a lot of friends… plays sports… maybe not that much in grades but I know you're not a bully, no, that is something that _they_ did".

Ryder was looking straight at Judy's eyes during this whole speech being quite surprised by the accuracy of it but once she finished, he only let out a sigh standing up.

"Look, let's make a deal," he said "In fact, let's make a duel, and if I win you get to tell me your side of the story and if you win… I'll tell you mine".

Judy hesitated a bit but if Ryder fought the same he spoke, then it was sure going to be a relatively easy fight.

"Fine, I agree".

Several minutes passed and the first round was over, the leaders now had to choose which two would rest and which two would continue fighting for ten minutes more.

"Cotton… and Dante you can sit out".

"What?" said Thali and Peyton at the same time complaining about Judy's decision.

"What you heard," she replied firmly "Are you trying to question your leader's command?" it was the first time as a squad leader that she gave an order of this kind… maybe it was just the "adult instinct" but it felt good.

"Also I think you can ask for one of those guys to train you" she concluded pointing at the soldiers.

And so, Judy and Ryder started their duel with Ryder trying to use his body and arms to tackle Judy, actions that she managed to dodge thanks to her light body and because it wasn't her first battle at all, she had done this type of stuff back in the academy where she became a police officer, this was no new.

But from this fight Judy analyzed that Ryder used a very aggressive and quick tactic with little defense giving Judy a lot of weak points, all it took was wait for the tiger to try to attack her, letting the enemy throw himself into you and then smack it using your feet to deliver a great kick to the chest, not _that_ painful, but effective.

Effective enough to bring Ryder down.

"I guess I win," said Judy with a bit of cockiness "Brute force won't always win a battle, now get up and I'll teach you some things".

The tiger got up with a hand holding his chest but decided to shrug it off and put on into a fighting position.

"That was a hard hit Jud," he complained, "You weren't supposed to hurt someone".

"I didn't, you came to me with great speed that most of the damage was caused by you".

"Well," he replied breaking his position relaxing the muscles a bit "A deal is a deal… The first wave, nothing bad happens, my family struggles with food but we were handling it, then I sneak in the middle of the night to-"

While carefully listening Judy decided to fake a kick to the same place only test Ryder's reflexes –without actually kicking-, with the tiger using one arm to block the sudden move realizing that it was indeed a test, they both smiled and Ryder continued with his story.

"-To try and steal food since everyone else was doing it, but I think I got carried away too far by the excitement since before I knew it was already day-" now he was the one that gave two consecutive punches but Judy dodged the two of them with her now delivering another fake-kick proving that Ryder was still losing.

"Anyways, later, the earthquake started and then the tsunami where I and many other people rushed into a building to protect ourselves".

He tried to give another hit but this time Judy grabbed it in mid-air.

"Was it effective?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," he replied now giving a successful fake-kick "After the water retrieved everyone left the building except for me who used it as a shelter".

"Why you didn't come back?" she asked stopping the fight.

"I knew it was no use; that wave was a big one and our house was nowhere close to a building big enough to survive… Third-wave. Never knew it was there, I spent so much time wandering around the building that I didn't realize that there was a pandemic".

"When did you find out that there was a third one".

"During the fourth one, guys in uniforms scan the building, thy find me and tell me that I need to do whatever type of bullshit they wanted me to do".

"The buses? It's a rescue".

"It's a draft, they're drafting you".

One of the soldiers who watched them whistled to indicate the fact that they weren't fighting and they need to continue. So they resumed the combat but not as fluid as before as the story still hadn't ended.

"Now, I'm here… fighting against an ex-police bunny with her… sister? Daughter? What is she?" he said talking about Cotton.

"Niece… How many were there in your family?".

"Just me, mom, dad, and my brother".

At that moment Ryder crouched using his leg to attack Judy's feet very quickly dropping her straight to the ground.

"I guess _I_ win".

Judy chuckled a bit getting up.

"These ten minutes feel like forever… The first wave, I get stuck on a train and have to travel approximately one hundred miles on foot, the second killed my dad and the third one my mom…" she stopped the combat thinking on the same memories again, something that Ryder noticed but Judy once again gave a fake-kick followed by fake-punching combos to stop the emotions.

"Then…" she grabbed Ryder from the neck as if she was choking him so she could whisper better "I sneaked in one of the buses pretending to be a teenager to protect Cotton".

She freed him with Ryder turning back confused by the crazy plan Judy had but despite it, his response was not what Judy expected.

"So you still have someone... How is that fair?"

The light smile Judy had disappeared watching Ryder's face of frustration with a bit of disappointment.

"I watched them both died Ray," Judy explained "But this isn't a competition, what matters now is that we, as a squad-"

"Stay together?" he finished the sentence for her "That's what my parents said during the first one".

The whistle ring indicating that the ten minutes were over and that new round was going to begin before they both left their area, Judy out of nowhere and unexpectedly hugged Ryder, a tight one but not too long, a hug that every member of her squad witnessed leaving the tiger a little embarrassed.

"Dante!" she called out with the fox standing up too fast "You're going against Stripes".

"Stripes?" Ryder asked.

"I figured that if you're going to give everyone a nickname then you should get one too".

"I like that one!" said Dante from behind smiling with Ryder rolling his eyes.

"Cotton…" Judy said more softly "Come with me, I need to teach you some things… maybe things beyond combat".


	19. End of the Training

Wednesday: More shooting, this time with moving objectives, and you, as the shooter, also needed to keep moving.

Thursday: Mind games, a bunch of puzzles, illusions, scenarios affected by perspective, and many things that could happen in battle.

Friday: Recap of everything learned.

Saturday: Simulation of how would it feel being in the battlefield, everyone wore a special uniform and with fake guns four squads at a time would be dropped in an area where the main objective was to "kill" everyone else.

During these four days, the 'Wild Squad' went through a lot not only because of the tests themselves but also between them, to begin, Ryder had now his full set of nicknames.

Judy was simply Jud, Dante was D., Peyton was Big P., Thali was Cotton and Cotton was Fluff. This last one was confusing but Ryder chose it because he couldn't think of anything else, and while everyone simply went with it, Judy still decided to call everyone by their real names

Also, the hug Judy gave Ryder during the combat practicing was brought up by the other members where Judy decided to give the same "This isn't a competition about who has the biggest sob story" speech in a very kind manner giving a hug to all of her members after she finished.

"I know that…" she concluded "All of us here have split from our families but… if we stay together and put aside our _rivalries_ then we can create our own family".

Ryder chuckled at the speech which he considered corny receiving a bump from Dante.

"Don't forget, Jud, that some families can have _certain_ difficulties".

Judy chuckled but after this, things for the team became relatively better, Cotton & Peyton were the lowest-tier of the squad but Judy tried to make them "better" by giving some casual exercises in their free time.

The rivalry between Dante and Ryder lowered down with Dante stating that:

"There was never a rivalry between us, you labeled as it by yourselves! If anything, Stripes was just jealous" said the fox.

"I was jealous?!" replied Ryder "You were trying to show off in every test!"

"Showing off? Oh! Ok, sorry for getting points for our team while you were trying to show that you were as good as me, failing in the process".

" _As good as me,_ you're proving that you are indeed showing off- Jud, don't you wanna say anything?"

"Anything?" Judy replied "This looks like a problem that you two need to solve by yourselves… proving that yes, Dante, we didn't label this as a rivalry out of nowhere".

During the mental training, Judy noticed how Peyton and Thali were pulling outstanding results compared to their previous performances while it was the complete opposite for Dante and Ryder who struggled a lot in that test, as for Cotton… She wasn't a complete lost bullet because at least she was trying but it still came with negative results.

Still, this allowed Judy to see that when it came to brains, Peyton and Thali were the correct ones.

Saturday was the definitive day for the squads and the leaders themselves to prove what they were made of, how they would react to these situations, and who the best of the best were.

Spoiler Alert: It was one hundred percent, Judy.

But this doesn't mean that her squad did it poorly, in fact, the complete opposite, they even surprised Judy by the way they reacted, Dante was still the star guy of the team by getting the most amount of "kills" while Ryder used a more aggressive approach and never hid once during the battles unless Judy commanded him to, of course, that most of the time this got him "killed".

Even Cotton knew how to obey her leader's orders as well as Thali and Peyton despite not getting enough kills they did score their points there and then and also hiding when they needed to.

Once the session was over, they 'Wild Squad' went back to their rooms as usual waiting for tomorrow, a day that was very special because tomorrow the results were going to be given, the results that would mark who would receive punishment and who would go to the battlefield for the first time.

But this was not what Judy was waiting for, she couldn't figure out what she wanted more, to be honest, would take an unknown, but maybe common, punishment be worth it? It could be something like take one million laps in two minutes or something like that, but the other side of the coin was going to the battlefield.

Going out there by herself would be one thing, maybe going out there with Nick could have made it even better, but this time she had to go with five kids, two of them were semi-brats and one of them hadn't even made it out of 2nd grade and was already carrying a gun.

They were kids that she had trained and bonded with for one with, she couldn't let for someone to die under her watch.

"Ryder," Peyton began a discussion "If she says one thing-"

"You do it!" Dante finished for him "I think you died like four times already".

"You should hide more often," said Cotton calmly.

"I have everything under control guys, most of the time-" Ryder tried to explain before getting interrupted by Judy.

"No, Ryder, you don't, okay? When I say something, you _are_ going to do it with no questions. Understood?"

Ryder replied but not the answer to Judy's question.

"You are all talking as if we were chosen. Fluff's and Cotton's performance throughout the entire week could be enough to put us at the bottom".

"Seriously, stop it, we tried our best," said Thali.

Right after it, the otter soldier that has been supervising them through the week showed up calling for the soldier Judy Hopps.

"Yes sir," she replied, "You guys keep lecturing Ryder for me".

The soldier took her to a room that she was very familiar with at this point: Vosch's office; when she entered she took a seat as always and waited for the bear to start the conversation.

"Judy! I am very pleased to see you again".

"I… I guess I am pretty happy to talk with you sir," she said but deep inside this would mean another announcement that would make things worse, and at this point, she did not want to hear anything.

"Well, your squad was… curious, I didn't expect it to perform the way it did but they were good".

"Thank you, sir," she said still uncertain of where the conversation was going.

"I have to say, the choice you picked the other day, the little bunny, did she surprise you?"

"Uh… a bit".

"Her performance today was very useful even if you don't believe it".

Vosch stopped for a second waiting for Judy to say something which she did.

"Um… sir, excuse me if this behavior is not acceptable but… What are you trying to tell me?"

"If you want it in simple words… That little bunny today gained enough points for you and your squad to go to the battlefield tomorrow".

There was a very long pause.

"I… I am very thankful, sir" Judy replied with a smile.

She was not thankful at all

* * *

"Nick… Nick… Nick… Nick! Wake the hell up!" the hyena violently shook Nick in the bed he was

"I am already awake, what do you want now?" the fox grunted.

"I've found evidence that the base we are heading is indeed an alien base".

Zachy had said enough to catch Nick's attention.

"And…" Zachy continued with a grin "I think I already have a plan".


	20. We're Going to Do It

Are you awake enough to listen to my plan or you would rather hear it in the morning?" Zachy said noticing that Nick had not woken up at all

Nick let out a big yawn stretching out with the eyes open just enough.

"Go on" he replied carelessly.

"I'm gonna let you sleep, we'll discuss it tomorrow," he said knowing he didn't care.

"No, seriously, I do wanna hear it, maybe we can start it right now in the middle of the night".

"No, we can't".

"Great! Now, why not?"

"Moving in the woods right now is very dangerous".

Nick's eyes widened now being fully awake trying to process what Zachy just said.

"Excuse me? We've been traveling by night several times before you know".

"Yes but now it's even riskier because there are probably some soldiers that want to kill me".

There was another pause with Nick giving a semi-death stare.

"Also…" resumed Zachy his conversation "It's Saturday night, we can start the first day of the week with great passion!" he said charismatically but Nick did not take it this way.

"Zachy, just tell me what did you do now to get soldiers trying to kill you?" he said.

"Well…" he hyena replied and continued in a very fast-speaking fashion "I sneak out to look some food, there isn't food, some guys find me, they try to kill me, I shoot some of them, not all of them, one of them escapes, I find evidence about the base. Happy?"

"Sort of, but it's enough… Now talk to me about that plan, I am 100% listening".

Zachy took a deep sigh and started to relate his version of the plan.

"It's a simple one-"

* * *

When Judy got the news her heart stopped, she did not want it and the fact that Cotton got some small extra points to make it happen was truly shocking, but now she was glad that she managed to teach her squad "everything" they needed.

Still, she couldn't get herself to tell her squad that they were in, she chose to wait until tomorrow's actual results and see their reactions.

Well, their reactions were less than pleasing.

Ryder was the one that was truly excited cheering a lot after they announced it, Dante was also pleased just clapping but not as excited as Ryder was, Peyton was just glad that they didn't have to go through the punishment while Cotton and Thali were the ones that were more shocked than glad or maybe not glad at all.

"I thought more of us were going to be happy," said Ryder "What happened?"

"You do understand that we're about to go into war?" Judy replied with sort of a look of a disappointed parent.

"Against the ones that reunited us here! What's wrong about _that_?"

"He has a point Judy," intervened Dante "Going into war sucks but when it's against these types of… not even people, these creatures. Then it's worth it".

"You do not understand it," Judy continued "If you're motivated by anger to do any type choice then that choice already becomes a bad one".

There was a long pause between the squad all looking at each other trying to get what Judy was trying to say.

"But we trained well Jud," added Thali "If you're our leader then we should be fine".

This made the bunny smile; it was honest, coming from someone who also disliked the idea of going to the battlefield.

"Look," Judy stopped to search for words so she could finish the discussion "It doesn't matter if we want to go or not because we _are_ going, Vosch told me that we'll be deployed at 8-9 pm so we need to be ready at that time, we have the rest of today's day to do whatever we want in our rooms… Okay?"

Everyone nodded.

"And… as your leader I want to all of you do some movement, start heating before that, maybe some rest as well".

During the rest of the day, the squad did exactly as Judy told them to, Peyton tried to move quicker –something that he was now more able to do it than before- Ryder and Dante practiced their combat between them, Thali only did some common exercises like push-ups and stuff and Cotton decided to sleep.

As for Judy… she chose to think. Not in Nick, she knew that that wasn't going to make him appear in out of nowhere, no, now she was thinking about Cotton, all of this was happening because of her, because Judy chose to fool some guards, sneak into a military base only to protect Cotton and now she was to going to throw her into a war nobody asked for.

If she lost her in the battle then not only the entire plan was for nothing but that would her fourth loss of someone she loved, especially when being so close of each one, when she could have prevented all of those moments

Now she was the leader of a team, technically she should command for Cotton to stay in the base but she was also under command of someone with higher authority that denied that.

But what if she could?

Maybe she could do it.

She can do it.

And she will do it.

* * *

**Sunday – 6:33 pm**

"The sun's going down buddy" Zachy reminded Nick.

"No need to remind, me…" said Nick "The part of the plan that confuses me is that I thought you didn't want to kill anybody".

Zachy took a deep sigh but replied quickly because it was a simple answer

"Innocent people, Nick, all of them…" he pointed at the sky "are not innocent and are not people. They took the only person I cared about and I guess it won't hurt if I just take one or two of them away".

Nick tilted his head in disapproval and pity as well but right now the plan that was just hours away from the beginning was way more important than the reasoning behind the plan.

"Also…" said Nick "You know I'm not killing anyone".

"You are not killing anyone Nick! I've told you, just hold her enough to make her pass out and you'll be fine".

"And you said that you got _all_ of this information with only recordings?"

"Well… I went to the woods, I overhear them talk about the initiation process and after our little battle is over, I check the recordings to find more useful things".

The reason why their plan needed to take so long to be put into action because of two simple things, one, because they to get inside the base thy required to grab a bus, the buses they saw back in Zootopia that only belonged to the military and those buses only appeared during the night these times because that's what Zachy found out.

And second, because the house they were staying in was cozy.

At 8:25 pm the plan begins.


	21. The Fifth Wave

Judy and her squad were required to wear a tight blue one-piece-suit under the traditional soldier uniform along with a special helmet, this helmet allowed them to see which animals were aliens in disguise it was a visor in front of the individual's eye and show the green parasite-like creature in the host.

Simplified? If you see a green skull, kill it.

It was already nighttime with the four selected squads being currently transported to four different helicopters ready to be deployed in four different areas and the 'Wild Squad' was completely ready for it.

Ryder "Stripes", Thali "Cotton", Dante "D", Peyton "Big P.", all of them were ready with their seatbelts, they uniform and a rifle according to their size right in their hands waiting for Judy and Cotton to arrive who was going to "check something" as Judy said.

However, when she approached the helicopter, everyone noticed that Cotton was missing.

"Judy! Where's Fluff?" asked Dante screaming over the sound of the spinning blades.

"She should be here!" Judy replied.

"No, she's not! Where is she?" the fox insisted.

"Either she's in this helicopter or she may get into another-"

"Jud!" shouted Ryder, "You said you were going to check something! Where is she?"

The helicopter began to spin its blade with Judy now quickly securing her seatbelt and the vehicle lifting off the ground without one member after it was fully in the air all the eyes turned to Judy demanding an explanation.

"Guys!" she began to explain, "I told her to go to the helicopter! Maybe she… got in the wrong one".

"But would you tell her to go on her own to a helicopter? What were you even doing?" asked Dante again but got quickly interrupted by Ryder.

"The point is…" he said raising the voice and then lowering it "That's she's not here; she's either on another helicopter or back in the base because she missed it… Okay? Now let's not be distracted by that because tonight we have a mission to do and the last thing we need right now is to be mad at each other… especially at our leader".

There was silence for a long time and the topic was never brought up again despite everyone having questions for Judy.

"Remember that you should see a green skull in your screen" Ryder added to bury even deeper the topic.

Regardless of their little tension, the helicopter landed with a few maneuvers to avoid the debris in the ground in a very familiar spot to everyone on board, a place with many buildings all-around a place in the middle to chat and play around… or better said, _was._

When the squad touched the ground everyone took a look around to inspect the surroundings realizing where they were.

"We're back in Zootopia?" asked Thali.

"We certainly are… this is the plaza," said Ryder remembering the places "Hey Jud, wh-" he turned to his right to see Judy staring at a very familiar building

At this point the only who Judy told that she was a police officer and that Cotton was her niece was Ryder, everyone else just speculated about it but this was the first time when everyone was completely sure about her previous job.

Judy was staring at the old ZPD building now destroyed for a dangerous amount of time considering they were in an open field.

"Guys! Follow me!" Judy whispered to her squad with a tone of voice audible

The squad did as told but Ryder was slightly worried, if the leader of the team was going to be distracted by this then they were going to have several problems.

They all went to the building and quickly got inside with Peyton walking backward to avoid any "surprise shots", once they were in they all looked at Judy who was trying so hard to stay strong after seeing a place she had been in for so long with someone who she talked to every single day but it wasn't easy to do it.

"So you are indeed a cop," said Dante taking a look at the big-now-destroyed place "And the only adult-… very interesting"

The four members saw her wipe some small tears but then turned around with no signs of crying returning to her 'leader' status.

"Okay, guys! I am Officer Judy Hopps and I know this place like the palm of my paw so we're gonna stay here to look for things, anything that can help us okay?!"

"Yes sir!" they all said at the same time with Peyton adding something extra

"Do we need to split?"

Judy doubted, it was a decent move to gather things more quickly but right now she didn't want to risk anything or anyone especially at night.

"No, we won't we'll just go room by room".

That was a relief but still, nobody put down the guard and continued to do what they were doing, but they didn't find anything useful as Judy would call it. Old files of now unsolved and irrelevant cases, blood spots there and then, pictures, furniture, orange fur, but mostly the same things.

Probably after being around for thirty minutes was when they all heard the first gunshots. The first instinct was of course to hide but they had been training exactly for this moment, so the only thing all of them did was to crouch and hear where the sound of the shots was coming.

They quickly found after the window of the room they were on, shattered in a million tiny pieces.

"Thali, Peyton, get down!" commanded Judy with Dante and Ryder quickly trying to spot the sniper that just attacked them.

While they did spot him, it was moving way too fast for one of the two to even properly aim also receiving close calls from the sniper who couldn't aim either for moving too fast.

"Dante! Ryder! Stop!" said Judy knowing that if they weren't going to "score" it was better to stop wasting ammo and risking their lives.

They all hid below the window but quickly everyone noticed that Thali and Peyton were nowhere to be seen.

"Thali!" Judy shouted standing up leaving the room in an instant leaving the other two in shock, alone, with a sniper targeting on them and pretty confused.

They both looked at each other trying to understand why Judy would do that in the middle of a shooting.

"For being a cop you gotta admit she's kinda bad as a leader," said Dante.

"Yeah, I admit it, now let's kill this bastard" Ryder agreed going back to his previous position.

Meanwhile, Judy was looking everywhere for Thali and Peyton but doing it in pitch black and a huge building as the ZPD was hard and stressing considering you had to add the fact that they were being hunted

"Peyton!" she shouted again realizing that it was not the brightest idea. Luckily all it took was one look up to notice a shadow going to an upper level knowing where exactly they were going: The roof.

Ryder and Dante were still in the same room trying to shoot at whoever was shooting but the situation got worse after they spotted two green skulls show up as well, that was a three vs two, duel, and now the team that had the majority had a wide range of moving while Dante and Ryder were just stuck in a room and had to stay in the same position if they wanted to have a shot at it.

They went back to hiding trying to even their "bullet-situation" given that they had some to spare, but the best they could do was to peek over the edge of the window slightly only to receive a close call and going back to hiding.

However, there was one moment where they heard three shots and everything went silent… Maybe too silent, when the two mammals peeked again they didn't saw any alien there, a few minutes later Peyton and Thali returned to the room followed by a very disappointed Judy.

In just a few seconds, what everyone was expecting happened.

"What were you guys thinking?" Judy said trying to keep her calm.

"What did you expect us to do?!" replied Peyton "To sit nice and neat while D and Stripes _tried_ to take them down?! We _took_ them down!"

"You can't just leave your squad like that! We are a team!"

"Jud," interrupted Dante ready to vent "You do realize that you left your squad abruptly a few minutes ago? We almost got injured; you take a nostalgic building as a refugee; you went with Fluff back in the base to 'do something'; you also were a cop and an adult in a base full of children; hugged Stripes for no reason during training, and were extremely kind to Fluff as well… All without telling us why! How is saving our lives and doing what a soldier does is bad compared to everything you've done!"

The vent was finished becoming louder and louder with every point the young fox gave leaving Judy in shock not knowing how to reply or the fact that Dante felt like this.

"I…" she tried to say "I just don't want to lose them… any of you".

"And that's why Fluff stayed behind right?"

"Guys c'mon… is just… I don't want to lose any more people".

"What about us? We've lost people too Jud, but right now we have a mission to do and we need to focus on it!"

"A mission to do what?! To kill? Like they have?"

"Are you thinking in morals right now?! Like they did? You know this world is not made out of rainbows and sweets, is not like there wasn't an evil-plan happening months ago involving someone who wanted to turn everyone against each other in Zootopia-… weren't you in that case?"

"Dante!" interrupted Thali out of nowhere "Maybe Judy is not a good leader but she has been trying to protect us, we know we've all lost someone but we should try not to lose more people we care about… If you had someone of your family left you all would be doing the same, without thinking it twice".

There was a small pause but once again Dante counter-argued

"She said 'if we stay together we'll win', and-"

"We also left!" Thali replied, "To the plain roof and we eliminated them while you two kept them distracted but this doesn't mean that we couldn't have gotten hurt!"

"Did you got hurt?" continued Dante.

"No… but we could have… It's kind of ironic and senseless, these aliens destroy the electricity cause tsunamis and plagues but can't shoot at some random kids… did you got hurt anyway?"

"I certainly didn't… Stripes?"

Everyone looked at Ryder waiting for a response given that right now he was being uncharacteristically non-speaking which felt good in an odd way.

"Yeah… I…" he began to say slowly, "I think… You know I felt this burning sensation in the neck when I was hiding and I think it barely touched me, like on the tracker-thingy, lucky call, I guess".

Just at the moment, he said 'call' everyone backed down as if they had just seen a ghost or something worst with everyone but Judy pointing their rifle at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Guys, chill! What's going on?!" he said also preparing his gun as an instinct

"Judy what do we do?!" asked Peyton now frightened pointing at one of his squad members.

"What do you think you're doing?! Pull the guns down!" Ryder demanded now being genuinely scared and confused.

"Pull yours first!" said Dante.

"No, wait!" interrupted Judy "Everyone, just pull their guns down! Ryder, you too! Just… let's put our guns down".

Everyone did as her leader told them to but the tension wasn't over.

"Jud, what do you want us to do?! He's one of them!" said Dante again.

"One of _them_?" said Ryder confused "D, c'mon if I was one of _them_ I would have killed minutes ago! Why are you even saying this?!"

"Ryder!" Judy tried to explain it "In our screens, you're looking green! I'm just as confused as you are!"

There was finally a short pause but Thali said what everyone wanted to hear.

"Judy, what do we do?"

However Judy did not reply, instead, she casually took off her helmet, lowered the gun, and approached Ryder with her hands behind pressing on the neck just as the tiger did just a few seconds ago and suddenly the scenario repeated itself.

Now everyone was extremely confused pulling the guns once again but this time Judy got them down a bit faster.

"Wait! Wait! Pull the guns down… again, okay? I'm not an alien neither he is... I am green right?"

The group nodded.

"Yes, that's because of all of this… it's simply a game, Ryder and I are not aliens, you guys know who we are, but these helmets, these green skulls don't… don't mean anything, they're just a colorful effect".

"What are you saying?" asked Ryder from behind.

"What I mean is that probably none of the people out there are aliens, maybe they were all like us and the military just tried to test how we would react, they tried to manipulate us into their dirty work by using the people we loved".

"To kill aliens!" Peyton argued.

"No! To kill the survivors!"

"But Jud, why would the military want to kill other animals?" asked Dante.

"Because they… Vosch… they are the aliens, okay? They all lied to us, and these trackers are probably something else… something to add only to fuel their well-made illusion so we could kill everyone else faster".

There was a long pause with everyone waiting for someone to say something with Thali being that 'someone'.

"So… what do we do then? Do we just casually leave this area and hide? You know we can't go back then".

"First, we have to take off these trackers and then…" replied Judy "You guys are going to casually leave the area and hide… I have to return".

"What?" said Ryder "C'mon Judy you can't do that, it's suicide!"

"Yeah, well… I left my niece back there trying to protect her and now I just realized that it was a bad move, I must go back".

There was another pause with everyone just taking off their helmets and pulling their guns away now in a more -surprisingly- relaxed environment.

"I thought she was your daughter…" said Dante.

"Peyton," Judy replied ignoring Dante's comment "Do you know a place where I can take a bullet safely?"

Everyone's eyes widened trying to understand what Judy was going to do.

"Are you crazy?" Peyton replied "I-It's… too risky, I don't know if I can do it".

"You don't have to do it, Dante can".

"Do I have to do it?" the fox asked.

"Don't act like you didn't want to- And, yes, guys, if I go back like this they will probably check me through Wonderland again and they'll know that I know about their secret… taking a bullet and being sent to the emergency is the only way to avoid it".

"That's… pretty well-thought, I guess?" said Ryder.

"I know" was everything that Judy said.

Without saying anything else, Dante just took his rifle, and with the help of Peyton tried to deduce which one was the better spot for it.

"Let's hope you know what you're doing," said Dante before pulling the trigger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! This has been my longest chapter so far, but there was so much in here that I wanted to write so I hope it's good. Next time: Nick and Zachy's plan gets in action.


	22. Infiltration

t was around 8-9 pm and the buses that Zachy said that he was sure should arrive at this hour, weren't anywhere to be seen, they had been in the middle of the road for a few hours wandering around waiting patient and impatiently for a bus to show up.

"Are you sure they come at this hour?" asked Nick sitting in the middle of the road breaking the position he needed to be.

"That's what I heard," Zachy explained, "I don't know if they shared false information but I promise you that's what I heard".

"Yeah, maybe they shared false information on purpose knowing you were listening".

"Good point there," said Zachy targeting a nearby tree -without shooting- with his rifle trying to calculate his aim.

"Are you sure you need that?" asked Nick once again referring to the gun.

"Pretty much… Half of the plan wouldn't work without it".

"But I still think it's a bit extreme".

"Nick, I've told you many times, this is the least 'extreme' thing we can do, a tsunami is more extreme than this and you know it".

Nick decided not to ask any more questions because at this point the reply was probably going to be the same

After maybe fifteen more minutes they spotted two lights at the horizon, the moment they were waiting for had finally arrived, they quickly returned to their required spots which were Nick simply standing in the middle of the street hoping to stop the bus and Zachy hiding behind him.

The school bus did stop and shortly after the doors opened revealing a polar bear in the usual uniform, along with a gun similar to Zachy's.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!" the bear asked Nick who was with his paws in the air.

The fox didn't reply, instead, Zachy came from behind and without giving a second to react he shot the soldier on the spot running straight to the bus door targeting at the driver.

The moment Zachy pulled the trigger, Nick closed his eyes immediately and opened one of them after it was done, pulling his arms down he could only look disappointed at the hyena waiting for him to finish threatening the bus driver.

Zachy then made signs with the head to Nick indicating that they could get on the bus, being very surprised that it was an empty one considering that they guessed that it should have some children in it.

Already inside, Zachy took the driver communicator and told to head to the base, knowing that he was also one of them. The driver had no option but to go back to the place he was coming from –hence why it was an empty bus- with the two passengers going to the back of the vehicle.

"If you want to tell me anything, now's the time," said Zachy.

"What do you mean?" said Nick "If the guy who created the plan isn't sure that it's going to succeed then I suggest we abort right now".

"No, it's not that!" he replied chuckling "For example…"

The hyena pulled a picture that Nick recognized immediately being completely surprised that it was in Zachy's possession.

"Where did you find this?"

"At your house… Remember that picture".

It was the picture of young Nick with his mother in a Boy Scout attire Zachy retrieved back during the 3rd wave.

"Why would you hold on to this?" asked Nick slightly confused.

"I thought it was a nice object to carry on our trip… I mean, I doubt you brought any souvenir from the bunny and I certainly didn't bring any souvenir from Finnick… Sometimes is nice to have a memory of a loved one".

Nick didn't say anything and he just looked down at the picture with Zachy limiting to stare forward.

"Regarding the raid…" said Nick after a few seconds keeping the picture "I still don't fully get what I am supposed to do after… _that._ Just run around?".

"You can hide, run, play along, just grab the uniform and head out".

"Zachy, that's 90% risky, why don't you go and I stay on the bus?"

"Because I have a few reasons on why I should stay, one of them is because there's a very important place in this base that only I know where is located".

"So you're using me as a distraction?"

"That's…" began Zachy but stopped for a long time trying to know what to say next "An odd way of saying".

"Oh, Zachy c'mon!" Nick replied in frustration

"No, listen to me! The moment I finish what I'm going to do and I'll go directly to you so we can finish the raid but don't worry I have everything under control".

"The last time you had everything under control I almost lost an arm, you even admit it!"

"I do… because that moment was not under my control, it was improvised, now I know exactly what to do and-"

"Then why don't you tell me instead of being dramatic?"

"Because I… I'm telling you, you have to trust me, when you see it –if you see it- you'll understand!".

Nick accepted it but in a bad mood still doubting Zachy's plan, but the reason he decided to go with it was that he didn't doubt Zachy.

Since the beginning of the first wave, Nick freed him from the van he was stuck in then they agreed to look for their partners without knowing that it was a pointless search, they spent looking at the stars for several nights only having each other to be with.

The hyena also didn't want to let Nick go during the middle of the second wave and refused to leave him when the tsunami hit. It was after that moment that they knew they needed to be together and after the end of the third wave both Nick and Zachy knew that they couldn't be split.

When the fourth wave struck they were already in the middle of it without knowing, it wasn't until half a minute were they realized what they were in and Zachy, in the blink of an eye, did his best to save them both but, Nick was right, it almost cost him an arm.

Neither of them knew if a fifth wave was going to happen, but it didn't matter at this point, they had survived four of them right now and a fifth one wasn't going to make any difference. They began as rivals/forced co-workers, and then they became survivors working slowly to what they were now: Friends.

Nick wouldn't be on this bus without Zachy and Zachy wouldn't be on this bus without Nick.

"Hey!" shouted Zachy to the driver "Are we close? If you're leading us to the wrong direction-"

Nick gently tapped him in the shoulder interrupting his threat

"Just go to the front without screaming," he said smiling in a cocky way.

After a few short minutes, the empty school bus arrived at the base, with the red circles still in place and few children –new ones- already in the zone.

Inside the bus, they both found a sweater with a hoodie that they immediately knew Nick should wear if he was going to cover himself as a teen since he didn't look like one.

Once they arrived Nick stored the picture in his left breast pocket, only to go to the front and find a "dead" driver.

"Did you kill him?!" he said trying to lower his voice

"What? No! I just put him to sleep, press on the neck very hard, that's the only advice I can give".

And with that, Nick put on his hoodie and gave all the bullets left in his gun to Zachy to avoid any accident, something that the hyena did not complained, once he got out he received a number with his head a bit up so it wouldn't raise any suspicion, not too long after his number was called approaching the red door with his heart going at a thousand miles per hour

* * *

_If I had just brought her with us._

Was everything that Judy could think while waiting for the helicopter that was supposed to carry them back once the "shift" was over.

Around the 0200 hours many helicopters showed up to take back to the base to all the soldiers that just fought, Judy had sent her squad to a safe place while she returned to the only place she wanted to be away from, but the place she required to be in.

Right now she had a wound on her right side of the torso thanks to Dante but maybe the wound was a little bit too realistic. They managed to not hit any vital organs but it was still a clear shot to leave damage, luckily the helicopter arrived where she was, and she immediately ran to it.

The soldiers that were inside asked for the location of her squad but she ignored this simply telling them to 'get off'.

Once in the chopper, she didn't think only in Cotton but Finnick was also in her thoughts, if all of this was a farce with someone trying to cover something then probably what happened on that "operation room" was that she had been tricked into killing him.

_Maybe shooting was not the best plan_. She thought realizing that passing out was the most possible scenario she was going to feel in a few seconds.

" _Isn't there a better plan?" asked Ryder._

" _The best plan of them all would be to leave immediately but Jud made a whoopsie and we can't do it" explained Dante._

Of course the inevitable happened and Judy was "put to sleep" by nature once again on this wild journey.

This time when she woke up she found her in a bed but, unlike the previous time where she was in her home surrounded by her parents, now the environment she was in was what it looked like an emergency room meaning that her plan was slightly working.

However, sitting on her right in a chair was someone waiting for her to wake up that she was not expecting at all that he would be there.

"Commander Vosch?" was the first thing she said weakly having just woken up. Right now the 'parent' figure he had was no more, he just looked like your generic intimidating military commander

"Here you are Judy, safe but not unharmed, though I guess it was a lucky shot because none of the vital organs were damaged" said Vosch with his heavy tone as usual instead of the 'caring' one like he used when he talked previously with Judy. His stare was also different as it looked like he could kill her on the spot just with the eyes.

"Tell me about your _Wild_ squad," he continued "You left the helicopters and what happens after?"

" _Judy, are you sure about it? What if he asks you about… everything?" said Peyton a slightly scared "He could probably even be knowing what we're doing here"._

" _Then I'll guess I have to tell him the truth… or maybe a bit of it" she replied._

* * *

" _Keep being sly, bunny"._

* * *

"It was Dante sir" she replied.

"And why would soldier Dante shoot you?"

"Because… they turned against me".

"Against you?"

The more questions he asked the more difficult it became to keep the eye-to-eye contact

"I don't know how it happened but he said that this was all fake, a game".

" _This?_ "

"The base, the training, the combat, that we were being trained to kill survivors and not aliens".

There was a short pause.

"And you weren't involved in their little conspiracy right?"

She shook her head, confirming the statement.

"Is as if they were overwhelmed by many things sir," continued Judy "Stress, pressure maybe the loss of the _previous_ things…"

"You know, they disappeared," said Vosch switching the topic "Off the radar, they were gone".

"Well, they took their trackers out".

"They also took yours out apparently".

"I did it to follow their little game, when I had the chance I was able to shot Ryder slightly"

"And then?"

"Dante shot me".

"And then _…?_ "

Judy stopped looking at him.

"Then I ran away"

" _Doesn't seem like a convincing story to me to be honest" commented Peyton._

" _Do you have a better one?" asked Thali._

" _Not really but this is Jud's plan so…"_

"Honestly, Hopps, you were very lucky to come to the helicopters without over-bleeding" Vosch continued with Judy noticing that it was the first time he addressed her by her last name.

There was a long and awkward pause with Judy believing it was pretty much over.

"It's surprising Hopps, you endured the pressure of the combat and the 'following the crowd' mentality, is almost-… so out of this world".

"But I am from this world".

"Of course you are, right? Because after all that's what it comes down to, who is and who isn't from this world Hopps, they take us down but we rise, they keep on fighting but we keep defending, they attack and we take revenge… It's only natural, prey versus predator".

There was a short pause with Judy being honestly intimidated by how his voice tone became heavier and heavier with each sentence, but intimidated was not the same as scared.

"Shame for them," Vosch continued referring to the squad "Dante's probably going to search help in those he tried to fight, maybe he'll tell everything about us and what we're doing here but I've sent my own squad to make sure that doesn't happen".

There was another pause but shorter with Judy trying so hard to not show any emotion.

"Oh and one last thing," he said leaving the chair "We'll have to take the… _drugs_ out of your body for a full treatment".

"Full treatment sir?"

"You know, the combat can be tricky and the memory can go wild, so we need to make a complete check"

" _But Judy, you can simply say that you killed us all, there's no need to be like this" said Dante._

" _Ohmygosh D, she just told us, she needs a reason to not be directly taken to the operation room, she needs time"._

"Are you going to plug me to Wonderland?" asked Judy.

"We are going to plug you to Wonderland".


	23. Together Again

Walking through the empty corridors was not an easy task, especially if they aren't empty.

Honestly, Nick was still wishing that it was Zachy who came here, after what he did back in the examination room was not very appropriate.

When he entered the main room where all the newcomers went through, he took off his hoodie, revealing that he was not a minor, but when the doctor Pam noticed this, Nick wasted no time in trying to contain her.

It was hand-on-hand combat that did not last pretty long and it wasn't that violent either, Nick just did what Zachy suggested, press on the neck very hard, hard enough to make the deer pass out not kill her. Afterward, he tried to look for a uniform that was his size and he had to do it quickly before anyone could see the mess that was happening, he luckily found one, maybe a bit too small and tight but at least it was useful.

And still, he didn't know what Zachy wanted him to discover and why it needed to be such a secret, he couldn't have discovered everything just based on a conversation he overheard… right?

Also, to build pressure, some soldiers were walking in a nicely-packed order which made the fox anxious every time he walked past them.

"Hey you!" a deep voice called from behind but Nick did not turn around.

"Where's your squad soldier?! Turn around when I speak!" Nick slowly did as he was ordered trying to keep his cool smiling

_Zachy, if I survive, I'll kill you._

* * *

Okay, she wasn't going to Wonderland instantly, the self-caused wound still needed treatment so she still had some valuable minutes that couldn't be wasted.

The doctor that was treating her was a male bunny around her height that introduced himself as Kris.

"Do you know what's going on?" Kris asked Judy while searching for his instruments.

"What do you mean?" Judy replied in confusion.

"The evacuation, you don't know? They're evacuating this base but they somehow want to examine you".

"They're evacuating the base?"

"You are lost aren't you?" he sighed "Apparently I heard something about a breach, an invasion to the base, so they're taking everyone in planes to transport them somewhere else since this place isn't safe anymore".

 _It never was._ Was what she thought not what she said.

"You seem like you know what's going on, why do you ask?"

"I was trying to see if you knew how or who just infiltrated this base… It seemed a truly safe one".

_As for all I know it could be me you know._

"If there is a breach," explained Judy "It shows that this base was never safe and the next one probably won't be either".

Kris didn't reply, he just limited to wrap Judy's wound and continue the search for more things he needed.

None of them said anything for a few minutes as Judy was still trying to figure out what her next move was supposed to be… Until she spotted a very familiar and common room.

"Hey um… Kris, I need to use the bathroom" she said doing her best impression of being impatient.

"No you can't, that shot still needs to be checked and you'll probably make it worse if you make more sudden moves".

"C'mon, it's not that far Kris, it's right there!"

"I said no…" he said pulling out a needle.

"Wait you're not going to pinch me with that are you?"

"Are you afraid of needles? Oh, you gotta be kidding me".

"I'm not, isn't there anything else?"

Kris sighed with major frustration but he tried to please Judy as hard as he could.

"Fine! I'll get you something else; just… stay in the bed, I'll look for something to fix your _bathroom issues_ geez".

Of course, Judy was not afraid of needles at all but she thought that it would do something and unexpectedly it worked… She felt bad about lying, especially to Kris because he seemed –like everybody else- naïve and clueless about everything that was truly going on.

And what did she expected to find in the bathroom? Guns? A map? Maybe it was gut instinct telling her to go there.

But Kris was, of course, right, because the moment she tried to move out of the bed the pain in the wound was something you could feel but not something that was going to stop her.

Nevertheless, she could do nothing but to suck up the pain and simply head to the bathroom, lock the door, and examine the surroundings finding the common items you would find in a bathroom.

 _Definitely helpful._ She thought sarcastically.

Out of nowhere, she heard the loud knocking on the door that was obviously coming from Kris.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted a muffled voice coming from the other side.

"I told you I needed to go…" she replied very calmly

"And I told you that I was going to bring you something now open the door!"

"Can't you wait for a few seconds? Privacy?"

"Open the door or I'll call security!"

"Whoa, whoa, fine, I'll… just leave it slightly open it's not life if I'm going anywhere".

Judy was fully clothed the entire moment she spent inside the room but she opened the door in a way that it couldn't be noticed.

"Satisfied?" she sarcastically asked.

"Fine".

"Now, can you leave until I'm done?"

"I'll stay here until you leave".

Judy sighed but accepted the deal trying to come up with the next move, and just realizing that what she needed was on the other side of the door.

"Um… hey Kris?"

"And now what do you want?" he replied clearly annoyed.

"I'm having trouble getting up, I feel like the wound was more severe than what I thought… can you give me a hand?"

Kris opened the door pretty annoyed with an 'I told you so' look but he was still willing to help her.

"Okay, at the count of three," said Kris holding her hands ready to pull her up.

"One… Two…"

* * *

"What is your number?!" the soldier shouted back at Nick, it was probably the only question he was going to answer truthfully since

"Um… 5-4-5?"

"What are you doing around here?!" the jackal soldier continued asked questions now getting closer to Nick.

"I was given orders to look for the kids!"

"You- what?"

At that moment a loud 'bang' was heard and the jackal fell into the ground lifeless with a hole on his chest giving out _very_ clearly that someone just shot him. Nick desperately looked around for the response that did this but he didn't found anyone in sight so it could have been a sniper.

But now he was facing an also-big problem, there was a jackal in the ground, dead, and he was the only around there if someone caught him he was going to meet the same fate as the soldier so he needed to think… And fast.

Luckily there was an open door, when he perked through it he saw a place full of empty and un-folded beds, the jackal was slightly bigger than him but if he managed to get him on the bed then it could pass as someone sleeping.

 _The best plan in the entire existence._ He sarcastically thought

* * *

Knocking out a bunny and taking his medical clothes was something that Judy never expected to do, not even on this journey but right now it was the only thing she could've made… Including the facemask to prevent anyone from recognizing her.

But she had to admit that leaving Kris unconscious in the bathroom was honestly a hard move to make, if there was a tranquilizer dart gun, it would have been way better but she was forced to use the same method that the doctor Pam suffered a few minutes ago.

The next step was Cotton.

Now her biggest worry was that she was found, possibly interrogated or in the worst-case scenario, already dead, but that was a possibility far from happening since Judy gave her instructions on exactly what to say.

The first step was going back to the room where she left her in: The bedroom they had been using for a week.

* * *

Entering the room, done. Putting the jackal in the bed, done.

But just before leaving Nick saw a shape on the bed that seemed to be moving. At first, he didn't pay too much attention and wanted to leave the room immediately but after a few seconds, the "shape" turned around and made accidental eye contact with Nick, revealing a small bunny covered in bedsheets.

Eye contact is always uncomfortable especially when it's a long stare without saying anything.

The bunny seemed confused at Nick's presence so to break the awkwardness it was the fox that went first.

"Hey, buddy… What… are you doing here?"

The bunny did not reply instead he just uncovered but stayed on the bed sitting revealing to be a young female bunny with a uniform attire.

"I… missed the helicopters," she said very slowly trying very hard to keep eye contact.

"The… helicopters?" Nick asked himself processing the question "So are you like, lost?"

The bunny didn't say anything causing Nick to look around, slightly close the door –but not fully- and approach the kid.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, "What's your name?"

The bunny's ears perked up surprised by this reaction of a "soldier" that had been constantly giving her orders for a week.

"I've been called Fluff but my name is Soldier Hopps," she said pointing at the badge in her shirt that had the last name.

The mere mention of that name made Nick's heart drop and his smile disappears, a female bunny with the surname "Hopps" couldn't be a coincidence, or maybe it could since there could be many Hopps people, just because one person he knew about had it doesn't mean everyone who does is a relative.

"And what are you doing here soldier… fluff?" he asked with a light smile.

"I am… waiting for my au-squad leader to return".

"Your squad leader, I see… Do you think I could help you? Finding your leader?"

Now, 'Fluff' was shocked, the treatment she had received in a full week was nothing compared to this, it was so odd that she questioned if Nick was a true soldier but given the uniform, the fox was wearing, she was sure he was one of them.

"Finding? But she said I should wait here" Fluff replied very uncertainly since, honestly, she had been waiting for a long time now.

"Oh, in that case, you don't mind if I leave?"

"Wait!" she said, "Do you know how to leave?"

"Yeah, um… I think I do".

Fluff stopped a moment to think about it but she ultimately agreed.

"I'll come with you!" she replied very happily.

"My name is Nick" he smiled

And now what? This wasn't part of the plan but Zachy never bothered to explain what the plan was so technically this could be or could not be part of the plan but it was impossible to know for certain, but at the same time, Nick did not know how he was going to leave the place since Zachy never bothered to explain the plan!

But this was a little girl, who seemed pretty scared or confused about what was going on… and had the last name of Nick's best friend.

" _Don't be dumb, fox"._

* * *

" _What are you gonna do if she's not there anymore?" asked Thali._

" _And how are you even gonna leave?" continued Dante._

" _Look, guys," Judy began to explain "If I'm not coming by midday then you can continue your journey without me until then, stay here"._

The thought that Cotton was not in the bedroom was very frightening, but she tried not to think on it especially when she knew that taking her to the battlefield was ultimately the best idea, but it was not her fault since it was impossible to know there was a big conspiracy when she left the base.

After a few turns there and then she reached their main room only to find an already opened door, the first thing that worried her since she had left it closed.

But after entering the room she confirmed what everyone had expecting since she announced her plans to the squad.

Cotton was not there anymore.

Now this was a problem, a very big problem, the base was a big one and she honestly didn't have a backup plan in case of this happening since her niece now could be anywhere, especially since Kris told her about the evacuation and-

"The planes!" she said to herself "The evacuation!"

Of course, she did not know where this was happening but her outfit should allow her to ask without getting into trouble. She quickly headed out to search for it but stopped briefly seeing a dead jackal in one of the beds.

Something had definitely happened in that room.

* * *

Nick wasn't very sure where to go. During the discussion of the plan Zachy brought up an emergency exit in case of something going wrong, according to him, you could leave the facility from the same path you came in, and then back to one school bus, however, this was just a theory of him and he was never fully certain about it.

And now he was carrying a young kid by the hand in an unknown base that he had no idea if the "plan" was going to work.

"Hey, you!" a voice a shouted from behind… again, it was becoming annoying but not less scary.

The only difference was that this was a female voice.

Fluff was the first one to turn around and gasp in excitement running to her –a thing that Nick did not notice as he was with eyes closed-

"Where are you taking her?" the –very familiar- voice asked in a very passive-aggressive way.

"Well, you'll see…" he began to turn around trying to come up with a corny one-liner only for his heart to sink and his smile disappear.

It was a female bunny in doctor attire that had probably the same reaction as him, eyes as wide as possible; the ears dropped down and without the ability to move a muscle or even blink.

It was the bunny he would recognize anywhere, underwater, in the space, in a post-apocalyptic world, in a crowd during a night concert or in a police vehicle.

The same bunny that had to leave in the train station to look out for her family one month ago who he believed dead several times… It was his special partner.

"Nick?"

"Judy?"


	24. Zachy's not Afraid

Both of them were speechless, in a random corridor in one of the currently most important bases in the word with suits they had never worn making them look like in a costume party, Judy and Nick were alive and they were together.

For each of them, many thoughts came at the same moment to the mind but not from the mouth.

_"Why are you here?"_

_"How are you here?"_

_"What happened?"_

_"Are you okay?"_

It was Judy, who made the first move coming towards him almost running with Nick copying her movement and her pace and ending in the most passionate and tight hug they ever had.

Even better than the one under that bridge over six months ago.

"You're alive!" said Judy in almost a whisper.

The first thought that came to Nick's mind was "so are you" but the _fact_ that she was alive was too much for him so he just embraced the hug.

"Why-? How are you here?" she said with her voice still not being able to properly say words.

Nick broke the hug hoping to question but after a few more seconds of -unbelievable- eye contact Judy hugged him again.

"Why are you here?" Nick finally said still hugging her while being able to see a very confused Cotton.

"I… I work here…" Judy replied trying to come up with something that made sense without saying a complete lie, but this wasn't the time to make up stories "As a soldier…" she finished.

Nick was taken by surprise by the fact that she was working in a remote base for the enemy… with doctor outfit.

"And why are you-? Who's your squad and did you got in here?"

"Oh, this is… actually a disguise".

"You've infiltrated the base? But how?" she said very confusedly.

Nick did not reply which confirmed Judy's first question but the bunny brushed this off before giving another hug, this one now shorter than the previous ones.

"Nick we have to get out of here and fast," she began to explain slowly "This place is not safe".

"I know that… carrots, but- Are you her squad leader?" he said pointing at Cotton.

The two bunnies nodded.

"And why are you wearing a coat?"

"It's a disguise," she said smiling "But c'mon we have to leave".

"Wait!" he said after Judy had already picked a direction.

"What?"

"I'm… not sure if I'm ready to leave".

Judy got pretty confused by this with her ears perking up.

"Nick… what are you doing here? And how did you got here?" she asked very suspiciously.

"Look, I don't know if what I'm supposed to do has already been done or if I still need to do it".

Judy was pretty confused but she came to a possible theory.

"You came with someone?"

"Well…"

Unfortunately, Nick was not able to finish his sentence because he noticed how Judy's expression changed from confusion to shock so quickly with Cotton hiding behind her, when Nick turned around he faced an 'old' foe, one that was mentally torturing him since they left Zootopia.

"Looks like someone's lost," said the commander Vosch with soldiers behind them targeting the two _intruders._

* * *

_I should've come up with a better plan._ He thought.

Also, crawling in the ventilation ducts jumping from one room to another wasn't a comfortable position, especially when you have a rifle with you to carry along the way.

Also, sending Nick in a 'just go' situation was pretty stupid now that he was thinking about it and the reason why he did it was based on the slim chance that what he wanted Nick to see was seen if for some reason that thing was not there then the fox could be in great danger for no reason at all.

All of this brought him painfully back to Savanna Central where he casually let Finnick go without any backup plan or any last words during an alien invasion only to lose him days later.

That was not going to happen with Nick.

The plan may have been dumb, yes, but at least he gave all the information he heard in the forest from the soldiers including a system called Wonderland, also, this time he had something stored for the aliens, something that he wasn't sure to use it since the results could be unimaginable but if it meant saving Nick and Judy along with taking revenge on the invaders it was worth it.

The last time he was afraid of the aliens he killed an innocent man who probably only needed help.

Zachary Lyon was not afraid anymore.

* * *

Two soldiers stood beside Nick and Judy with another one behind them carrying Cotton by the hand, in front of everyone Vosch was escorting the group to who-knows-where.

Meanwhile, Nick and Judy could do nothing but follow them and exchange a few words.

"Is he your commander?" Nick whispered very lowly but hearable.

"He was, not anymore" Judy replied whispering back.

"Do you know he's… evil?"

"I do… but I learned about it like 6 hours ago- Wait, do you know him?"

"Turns out I survived a mass shooting that. Was. Orchestrated. By. Him".

Judy looked at him in disbelief for a few seconds until she realized that manipulating children were also part of Vosch's resume. But she was more shocked at the fact that Nick survived a shooting.

The two of them continued walking until they reached the same "investigation room" that they had both been through, where Judy experienced the Wonderland technology and where Nick knocked out the doctor Pam.

They were forced to sit down in two chairs facing the mirror with Judy panicking silently after discovering that the soldier that was with Cotton had disappeared.

Now, the two soldiers blocked the exit leaving Vosch to handle the situation.

"Do you know why we're going to win this war?" asked Vosch "Because we know all of you".

"I didn't expect you to start a villain monologue," said Nick.

"We've been analyzing you for ages and centuries," the bear continued ignoring Nick "When you animals evolved and developed your entire civilization, the construction of Zootopia and where you, little bunny, destroyed it and brought it together in less than a week".

"You… you knew about it?" asked Judy surprised by it.

"Why did you think I allowed you on that bus?"

"I got on that bus myself" she replied very firmly.

"Really? Didn't the soldier have to make a call? Wasn't he hesitating to let you in? You must be very naïve Judy if you think that no one in a military base knows the difference between an adult and a teenager bunny".

This gave her a little moment to remember the moment where she faked being a minor to get on the bus where the wolf that let her in did call through radio before fully letting her in.

"I let you in Judy because I was thinking that you could be a great asset to our team that you were going to be amazing in our squad".

"So that's why you played the 'father figure' on me? To trick me into this… slaughter? Because I had a father and now he's gone because of you!"

Vosch looked at Judy with a neutral expression before picking up the remote control with only one button from a nearby table.

"It can't be helped, Hopps… This is how life has always been, prey versus predator".

Suddenly, the mirror turned into glass again and the scene that Judy experienced one week ago was repeating itself only that this time the victim in the chair was not Finnick but Cotton… and only that this time she was not in control of the button.

"Wait!" she called with a different tone now "You don't need to do this! If there's anything you want to know you can just plug me into Wonderland! That should give you things away!"

"But Judy, he would kill her anyway," said Nick in a whisper but audible.

"You should listen to him Hopps," Vosch replied pointing with the button "I think he has shown more courage in twenty-four hours than you in an entire week. I'm gonna do something, I'll plug you both to Wonderland, I'll kill you after and probably spare the little bunny… if the fox tells me who he came with".

Judy looked at Nick surprised with the fox also being surprised that Vosch knew about it.

"What are you talking about?" he said.

"You may be sly but I'm not stupid. First, we receive the message that one of our squads was dead in the forest, second, another one saying that we have an infiltration of a fox and a hyena in the base, and then another one telling us about the death of the doctor Pam".

"What? I never killed her!" Nick replied defensively.

"Implying that you have a second partner… besides the bunny here. And if you want to make her happy then I would suggest for you to tell me where that hyena is".

Nick looked at Judy with her being worried that Nick was going to pull out another lie or a trick of his but Nick's look insinuated that he was about, to tell the truth.

"Look, he just told me to head inside while he stayed in the bus we came from; right now he could be anywhere!"

The bear looked at Nick and his soldiers without saying anything.

"Very well," he said emotionless pressing the button.

* * *

"That should've done the trick!" said Zachy "Without me, Nick would've already been dead… but I'm the one that puts him in these situations anyway".


	25. Ka-Boom

When Vosch pushed the button everyone –except Nick who did not know what it did- expected for Cotton to 'pass out' but instead, she just stood there still breathing and almost crying leaving Judy shocked in a huge sense of relief while the bear was angrily confused pushing the button harder a couple of times.

"They got it out!" shouted Vosch extremely furious slamming the controller to the ground and leaving the room "Watch those two!" he commanded for the soldiers to check out on Judy and Nick.

Judy was impatient, relieved by the fact that whatever happened, it saved the life of her niece and she wanted to get her out of that chair immediately.

Meanwhile, Nick was slightly confused; he figured out that the button should have killed Cotton yet it didn't because ' _they_ ' got it out, that action itself screamed "Zachy did this" but he wasn't entirely sure about it because the fact that someone like Zachy would shut down an electrical thing in a completely unknown base seemed too far-fetched.

As for the soldiers, they both simply stood there with each pointing at Nick and Judy.

It was an awkward moment but neither of them could move without getting the two soldiers to shout at them to sit down again, they were sitting there for around ten minutes with no dialogue but only stares exchanged, stares that said a thousand words.

However, Nick heard a light metallic 'thump' coming from above, Judy noticed it but the guards seemed unfazed, the fox tried to hear more sounds but he was unable to, however, he did notice a ventilation duct on the roof so something was moving inside there.

Suddenly, out of nowhere and without warning, the ventilation duct fell followed by a hyena that immediately went for the two soldiers taking advantage of their light confusion to try and gain the lead in a fistfight to further incapacitate their reaction speed but instead of using fists, he used the back of the rifle and then finishing the two guards with a single shot straight to the head for each finishing them both.

"I thought it was going to be harder," he said before looking at Cotton and shattering the glass as well "You can now free her," he said at Judy who immediately did it before saying anything to their 'savior'.

The hyena was, of course, Zachy who looked at Nick waiting for the fox to say anything. Nick left his seat and stared at him for a few seconds with a very disappointing look while Zachy was just with a light smile completely accepting Nick's stare.

"You know, I've been thinking that I deserve a slap," said Zachy slightly teasing him.

"And you're lucky to be with me because I'm not in the mood do it".

"Look!" Zachy sighed "I know I messed this plan a lot, and by a long shot but I think I've gained a bit of an advantage and… you found her! At least you found what I wanted you to find!"

This last sentence took Nick by surprise.

"You- you knew she was here?"

"I knew she had _been_ here, but I didn't know if she was currently at this place".

"Nick," said Judy who had finished freeing Cotton from the chair "Who is he and how does-"

"My name's Zachy and I am your… _special partner's_ friend" Nick glanced another death stare to Zachy before he continued "I know about you because we talked about you and… other things".

"Wait," said Judy "Nick, is he the hyena you told me about?"

Nick sighed.

"Yes, he is- was Finnick's partner and is now helping me".

Judy's mind dropped at the thought that she had killed the friend of two people and those two people were right in front of her, but the thought immediately vanished after she focused in the last part of Nick's sentence.

"Helping you in what?"

Nick hesitated a bit in telling it but Zachy went straight to the point as if it was the most casual thing.

"We're raiding this base".

"You're what?!" she said shocked, confused, and surprised at the same time.

"Wait!" interrupted Nick "Not that we were actually, **actually,** going to raid it, it's more like a way of saying…"

"-That we're going to raid it," Zachy interrupted giving a disappointed look to Nick "C'mon! We've been talking about it since we left Zootopia! Just because someone's in front of you doesn't mean we'll change it!"

"Yes, but you never bother to explain to me how it worked!"

"Nick!" shouted Judy catching the attention of the two "What would you expect by raiding it?"

Zachy and Nick exchanged looks each waiting for the other one to talk.

"I was thinking of stealing things or information," said Nick.

"Maybe destroying it- and you know it," said Zachy at the same time but adding his part causing Judy to sigh.

"Just tell me how are you 'raiding it' and what is your escape plan..? If… you have one".

"Well, even if we have one he hasn't told me which one is it," said Nick pointing at Zachy.

"I heard they're evacuating everyone in some sort of planes… maybe we can sneak in" Zachy added.

"What?" said Judy "Those planes are being taken to another base like this one, maybe worse, who knows, but we cannot go there. We have to go back to Zootopia; we must get out of here".

"Wait, Judy," said Nick "How long were you here? Maybe you know how we can escape".

"I've been here for a week… we weren't exactly exploring the base but I think I have an idea".

"And that is..?" asked Zachy.

"Nick still has… that outfit so he could ask for directions to an emergency exit; I only know there was one".

"Yeah, no," Zachy said now reloading his gun with bullets from the two dead soldiers "If there was an alarm that a hyena and a fox had invaded the base then everyone's suspicious".

"Well, I suppose you killed Pam then why didn't you do the same with the driver?" asked Nick in a teasing manner.

"I forgot," said Zachy carelessly.

"Can we just please go?" said Judy starting to become impatient "Vosch can come at any moment".

"I agree with her," said Nick looking at Zachy hoping for a plan.

"Don't look at me like that! The last time we faced Vosch is way different from this one!"

"You faced Vosch before?" asked Judy to Nick but he had already started arguing with Zachy.

"Zachy, of course I'm looking at you, you got us into this huge base and told me to go straight to the eye of the storm so now you should try to get us out of this place".

At this point, Zachy face palmed but he rightfully knew that everything that Nick was saying was true so he was left with no choice but to come up with a plan.

"Look, your bunny's right, let's get out of here first, and then we'll improvise," he said being the first one to casually leave the room.

Judy prepared Cotton for a piggyback ride also removing her uniform as well as the tracking device while Nick and Zachy discussed.

"Nick, do you really trust him? There's something about him that seems off".

"Well carrots, believe me, I do trust him… one hundred percent" Nick replied smiling leaving the door with Judy behind him.

Just as they got out the mood of everyone quickly changed as a loud rumble was felt that the first thought was that an explosion went off but from where?

"And now the stakes are higher than ever," said Zachy very casually "You guys solved a high-level case, can't you come up with something?"

"It doesn't come up like that," added Nick "Unless there's a secret passage or all the guards have disappeared we'll have to fight through this"

" _Judy, wait!" called Dante before Judy left the ZPD entirely "There's a backdoor for the base, don't know where, but I overheard a squad talking about it, maybe you can use it for your escape you can ask about it before it's too late… Good luck by the way"._

"The backdoor!" shouted Judy in excitement out of nowhere "Nick! There's an exit in this base we can use, it's not a secret passage but we need to find it. Do you _casually_ know where that is?" she asked to Zachy.

"Nope, if I did, I would've already told you".

Another tremble, it was getting clear that this base was -somehow- falling apart and quickly.

"Judy, take us there!" said Nick.

"I don't know where it is!"

"Wasn't the backdoor exit where our last practice took place?" said Cotton very lightly surprising the three of them with Zachy being legitimately surprised that she could talk.

"What?" asked Judy trying to comprehend was she was saying.

"I drew a map of the base as far as I knew, but I left it in our room… I think the backdoor is where we practiced for the last time".

"You mean the outside shooting? The 'simulator' of the battlefield?".

Cotton nodded lightly; maybe this was what they needed to escape.

"We may get ambushed you know," said Nick.

"Nah, man, it'll be fine" replied Zachy and exactly at that moment, another rumble was heard, this sound was closer so the sound of the explosion confirmed everyone's fears "Also, the time's running out so we can take our time, let's go".

The trio –and Cotton- wasted no time to begin running away or more specific, jogging since the halls were almost like a maze and Judy was trying to remember the walls and rooms to guide herself to the 'backdoor'.

Judy was excitedly frightened since they were maybe minutes away from leaving the same walls she had been seeing for a week and away from all the lies told by Vosch along with the pain of the thoughts of losing, not her squad, but her friends in self-battle they created. But the best part of it was that she was going to escape with Nick.

Nick was frustrated with Zachy for his lack of planning but at least he admitted it but he was slightly mad for not telling him that Judy inside the base, if the hyena did it for drama then it was kinda like a douche move, but it didn't matter since they all were now running for their freedom. Enduring earthquakes, tsunamis, the loss of friends, a mass shooting, and sleeping next to Zachy, all of that was worth it if it meant having Judy next to his side once again.

As for Zachy, right now he wasn't sure if what he was going to do was worth it, Nick and Judy –especially Judy- seemed to have everything under control and ready for an escape better than what he ever thought, but maybe not doing it could lead them to an unimaginable fate for everyone regarding of the plan. He just didn't want to lose Nick, not now.

Trying to cover those thoughts he tried to pay close attention to his surroundings… After all, he needed to be careful about which bombs he was detonating.


	26. Chocolate Donut

What was once the Zootopia Police Department was now an abandoned building that worked as a refugee for the Wild Squad, a name that nobody used or even cared about. Inside what once was the main room where the daily tasks were given, now was a place for Ryder, Dante, Peyton and Thali to… be there.

It got boring quick, after their battle that lasted for like twenty minutes or so, they decided to explore the building when Judy left, of course they made really sure no one was around when they started.

And just like their first search, nothing interesting was found but it was nice the exploration, now it seemed like they had been waiting for hours and Judy hadn't returned, she instructed them to wait until dawn and so far, the sun was still far from coming and everyone was getting impatient… and worried.

"I really wished clocks worked" said Thali staring at the horizon hoping for the sky to light up.

"Why?" said Ryder cleaning his gun "It won't make the time go any faster you know".

"I could manage my time better".

Ryder rolled his eyes and continued cleaning his weapon looking at Dante who was walking around with no destination and Peyton just resting on the corner of the room.

"You're all being paranoid," said Peyton without opening his eyes "She said 'until dawn' and we all agreed that we were going to wait until midday right? And right the sky is still black, it's not dark blue; or anything so nope, she can still return. Sleeping would suit you well".

"But sleeping is not easy now" replied Thali.

"I know, but you don't lose anything by trying".

"Okay, first, you lose being awake," said Ryder "Second, it's not trying to sleep, it's sleeping what's difficult… nightmares can be scary… I got over them but, ya know, just saying".

There was a small pause with everyone minding their own business except Ryder who was curious about Dante's behavior.

"Hey D," he called "You have been slightly off-character, haven't spoken anything and walking around isn't something I would expect from you".

"All of this just feels so wrong!" he said suddenly as if he had been waiting for someone to ask.

"The fact that this was a lie, the battle, or that Jud went on a suicide mission?"

"That one! If we're supposed to be a squad then we shouldn't be here like sloths doing nothing and waiting for the sun to rise".

"Are you saying we should be with her?"

"Exactly! You said it; she went on a suicide mission so why did we let her go with it?"

"Well, she insisted that it was her niece and that she needed to go alone because it was going to be a more convincing story and being solo makes it harder to track down someone".

"Yes but-"

"Also, didn't you accused her of being a bad leader? Also the fact that we want to go there disobeying her orders already makes us bad squad-mates".

"Look, we're making our own decisions because Jud plays with her heart, and right now we're in a war where you should think with your head… in fact, that's what brought her into that situation if you think about it".

"D…" interrupted Peyton "You can't change it, she's there and we're here, end of story, now we have to wait".

"But what if we don't? We can go to her".

Peyton quickly incorporated now paying full attention to the situation quite shocked about it.

"C'mon, you can't be serious, we can't go there!"

"Of course we can! As long as we have a coherent plan then there's nothing stopping us!"

"Actually, D, there are two things stopping us," said Thali "One, Judy wouldn't want that, two, the first wave won't allow vehicles, forgot that?"

"And did you forgot that we came to that base in school buses? Some things are still working we just need to find them".

"Yes, unless you have a skateboard or a hoverboard then we're not going anywhere"

"Yeah, Big P, chill" said Ryder putting the gun away now focusing on the discussion "At this point I don't have faith in D, but his idea has… potential".

"Gee, thanks" the fox replied.

"You're welcome and also… let's make a decision, if you like his idea simply say 'I agree', if you don't just say 'I don't', easy right?"

The description was easy enough, but the answer certainly was not.

Dante's proposal was crazy, but if they all properly discussed it, it would be a truly good one, but they had so many things to weight at the same time. Judy wouldn't want to find them in a base that she decided to go by her own will, also that base was extremely dangerous at this point and if they showed up, the story they planned for like an hour would have been gone.

Looking at each other silently as if they were communicating just by looking they made a choice

* * *

Running across the empty halls was a scary feeling, not only they because of the excitement of leaving the place but because anyone could get caught at any point while they also had to avoid the explosions in the background, some of them close, and some of them that could be felt that it was far.

But were the halls truly empty? Not always, however, Zachy had previously reloaded his gun, so that means that any obstacle that even showed in their path was eliminated and since Judy told them that every soldier was being evacuated then it was very likely that no kid should get hurt.

What was beginning to puzzle Nick and Judy were the explosions, why were they being detonated? Was the base being self-destructing? It didn't really matter, the base was blowing up and that's it.

"Judy do you know the exact location of our exit?" asked Zachy looking for any more 'obstacles'.

"I know where it is".

"I need a location so we don't die!"

This line made Judy alert for some reason, this hyena clearly knew something that she didn't and at this point that was extremely dangerous.

"What do you mean..? Nick, how do you know he's not one of them?"

"What?" they both said at the same time.

"Hey, just-" Zachy said before doubting if to show the control "I have a- Forget it, this is it".

Without more drama, he pulled out the control showing it to the two of them that were shocked and confused but especially Nick.

"Zachy what are you-? Are you blowing up the base?"

The hyena forced a smile hoping to explain it without anyone losing their minds.

"It's a raid… Sorry Nick, for not telling you, I really am but I was scared that you were going to say 'no', at least I told you that I did wanted to take them down, all of them and this base is the perfect place to set up something like this".

Nick and Judy looked each other and back at Zachy in confusion and surprise trying to process what he just told them and hoping for something else.

"I wish I could have told you Nick but I really needed to come here… and you can't get mad at me because otherwise you wouldn't have found her… And right now I need you, Judy, to tell me where we're going because either I'm gonna give us the upper hand or screw it up".

Judy decided to resume the walk to the exit a bit slower for some reason, trying to explain the situation to this newcomer that she had to trust because Nick trusted him and she trusted Nick. Also blowing up the base didn't sound so bad… After all if this is a war then they're destroying a huge point, however, if the base is evacuating in a bunch of planes to a new place then this was unnecessary property damage.

"I don't know the location," explained Judy "I know where it is but if you want the exact point then I can't give it".

"Okay, fine, I'll stick myself to the gun, no more explosions".

The group followed Judy and this time there was barely anyone in sight so Zachy never needed to fire another bullet.

Nick wasn't mad at Zachy, he just wished that he told him about what his true intentions were so he could have been more cautious but after everything they went through, his actions were completely understandable, maybe too harsh, Nick was still wondering where did he got the explosives and the detonator from but apparently just because he sneaked out that night he now knows everything.

At this point, Zachy wasn't here to raid or to gain an advantage over the aliens, he was here for revenge and he wasn't afraid to show it.

After a bunch of running, Judy finally arrived at the door she had expected to, only to find a light but possible scenario.

The door was locked.

After Judy put Cotton on the ground trying to forces the door to open, Zachy decided to hit it with the gun or even shoot the locks but neither of those options worked causing only minor damage.

"Any other options?" asked Nick looking around them to see if he spotted anyone.

"Um… no," said Judy beginning to panic "Coming back to the main entrance would be risky, I don't know…"

Looking at the door, at the bomb control, at Nick and behind them, Zachy let out a deep sigh.

"Nick, Judy, smaller Judy, stay here and keep trying to open that door, maybe it'll get weaker the more explosions go off… I'll try to… I'll be back, don't worry"

"Zachy," interrupted Nick noticing the hyena struggling to make eye contact "After all, I think that you should tell us what you're going to do".

Zachy looked at him a bit nervous but he was right, this 'adventure' was coming to an end and at this point Nick deserved to know what his intentions were. Putting his hands in his shoulders Zachy began to explain.

"Ok, there's a bomb far away from here if I recall correctly but I can't detonate it with this control, which I found in that night if you're wondering, one of them had it. Anyway, to free this door I can blow up a few places close so it gets loose but for the big explosion to go off I need to go there".

"And… how much time do you got to escape?" asked Nick a bit suspicious.

"I…" Zachy said nervous "don't… know. It could be ten minutes or zero seconds I only know it won't be that long but-"

"Then you're not going, we'll find another exit".

"Nick, you don't get it, finding another exit will take more time even if there is one," finishing this sentence he activated another explosion which caused a bit of rubble nearby "And we don't have much time".

"Stop doing that! _You_ are the one that's making us lose time, you're staying with us".

Nick turned back trying to keep pushing the door to see if it could open but once again, there was no positive result with it. Zachy tried to slowly leave the area to complete his plan but he was stopped by Nick who noticed it.

"Zach!"

"Nick!"

The hyena did the first thing that came to his mind, an universal way of showing to someone that everything's gonna be okay no matter what, the stronger it is, the bigger the emotion.

A hug.

"Nick…" he said still hugging "You have an amazing special partner, and you need to take care of your bunny. I couldn't save my own special partner but now I can save you. You have to let me do this, I can't allow them to take away the people I care about, I can't".

Nick looked away for a few seconds breaking the hug before replying.

"And why do I have to be the one losing you?"

"You won't… I'll be back for you, okay?"

Nick was a bit surprised and confused at the same time but he had learned to trust Zachy, after what happened to Finnick and the incident in the restaurant where he accidentally shot that wolf it would make sense what he was trying to do but of course he didn't want to lose him.

He had just reunited with Judy after weeks of being apart and believing she was dead and now he was going to lose a friend? But Zachy was still unpredictable about his actions.

"Okay" was everything Nick said.

Reaching for his pocket, Zachy pulled out a paper bag and throwing it to Nick for him to catch, once he inspected the bag he found out a simple, not so tasty-looking chocolate donut. The same donut he was supposed to give Finnick weeks ago, only that now it was inedible.

"I wasn't thinking about that" said Zachy before leaving the area carrying his trusty gun.

Disappearing into the hallways more explosions were being set off with more rubble falling as Judy tried to force the door open once again until finally it simply fell on its own as Zachy predicted it to.

They were finally out of the base


	27. Freedom

The exit door broke down and Nick, Judy and Cotton all were finally free from it now being able to see outside, for Cotton it was the first time she had been truly free since she arrived to the base and now she decided to go on her own without the need for Judy to carry her.

When they got out, the three of them had a clear shot of the planes taking off in the distance as well as some helicopters surrounding them.

"Judy, where?!" Nick shouted trying to speak over the sound of planes, helicopters and now explosions.

"Away from here!" she replied.

The trio began sprinting in a straight line through the training field leaving the explosions behind until they spotted a helicopter that going off-course like the rest of them and heading directly for them.

Taking a better look at the inside of the chopper, Judy quickly realized the intensity of the situation as she recognized the man at the controls that was beginning a shooting. Vosch

"Nick, take cover!" shouted Judy immediately grabbing Cotton and heading for one of the 'cover-spots' that the field had. Right after, Cotton complained from a burning sensation that Judy immediately checked only to see that she hadn't been fully hit by a bullet, but one came miraculously close

Nick, however, didn't spot Vosch but he realized that a helicopter was just starting to shoot at them in a straight line so he simply assumed who might want them dead and he quickly guessed that it was the commander.

Judy hid behind a wall on the left and Nick on a mini-bunker on the right leaving a middle path for the helicopter to go through and then make a 180° flip to continue his rampage only to be interrupted by tons of debris flying away in all directions coming from the base indicating that a big explosive went off.

The chopper noticed this –who wouldn't?- and decided to flee the scene and join the planes in their escape, giving the opportunity to Nick and Judy to keep getting away from the base as more and more debris flew through the sky.

Very soon after, the ground began to crack like an earthquake and it was spreading fast with the ground starting to crumble chasing the trio.

"Carrots, we need to go faster!" shouted Nick with Judy immediately returning to carrying Cotton but despite their efforts the earth was swallowing everything at a decent speed.

Suddenly, a vehicle –more specific, a military jeep- was approaching the duo from the distance coming quickly, the first thought Judy had was to hide once again except that now if they stayed quiet for a second they would probably be swallowed by the "earthquake".

However, this jeep was different, first, the front door opened while it was still moving, second, it was slowing down but it wasn't stopping, third, it was also making sure that it could escape from the earth as if making a tactical retreat and fourth…

Ryder was driving.

"Jud! Get in!" he shouted with the door opened trying to maintain his speed to get away from the quake.

Judy was absolutely shocked and with so many questions but she had no time to think through it so she quickly carried Cotton with Nick following her opening the back door and immediately getting in the seats as Ryder proceeded with the acceleration.

"Fluff!" he said watching Cotton "Surprisingly I'm glad you're okay!"

"But not untouched-" said Judy "What are you doing here?!"

"We're not out of the safe zone leader, there's a trail of earth behind us that _maybe_ could kill us".

"You're not even tall enough to reach the pedals?"

"Nope… that's why D's doing it".

Judy looked down at that place only to find out Dante pressing on the pedals Ryder commanded him to and because right now they needed speed, that's all he was giving.

"He~llo Officer Judy, you can't get mad at us because you clearly needed help… I'm happy to see you too Fluff" said Dante without taking the sight of the pedals.

"I suppose you all know each other?" said Nick trying to catch up on everything.

"You can bet fox," said Ryder "We're part of her squad but who are you?"

"I'm… her cop partner? Well, I was, I mean, I'm still her partner but I doubt that being a cop is still on duty".

"Oh! I get it now, so-"

Ryder was abruptly interrupted by the loudest explosion so far blowing everything up in the skies causing everyone in the car to cover as Dante just pressed harder on the pedals –not as if he could go any further but he made an effort-.

Nick, however, looked back with his ears down at the base watching the debris flying all around as the rest of the building slowly crumbled leaving nothing but a big hole of dirt and concrete. Of course Judy noticed Nick's reaction it was like being contagious, despite she only knew Zachy for a handful of minutes she understood that he and Nick were good friends.

"Where are Peyton and Thali?" asked Judy after a long moment of silence and awkwardness.

"They're right where you left them… waiting for us" replied Dante.

Nick didn't want to say anything, as if his body couldn't bring itself to do it but he was also curious about this little newcomers and their relationship with Judy.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Judy made a small smile sighing in relief before replying.

"We're going home".


	28. Epilogue

Everyone had escaped. Cotton was sleeping in Judy's arms with Ryder was driving the car and Dante slightly on the pedals while Nick had already fallen sleep as well in the back seat of the jeep

"Whose idea was it?" asked Judy to Ryder but it was Dante who replied.

"It was mine," the fox said proudly "Stripes helped to execute it and Cotton shared some suggestions… but the main idea was obviously mine because I knew that you were gonna need some kind of help".

"Yeah, we'll discuss that later but what about Peyton?"

"He stayed behind!" Ryder said quickly before Dante could speak "He supported the idea, but he decided to be a 'good' soldier and decided to obey your orders-".

"-But that was mostly an excuse to avoid saying 'I won't be useful' remember?" Dante completed.

"Sure thing".

"And one last question. How did you get there and how did you know where to find me?"

"The jeep was borrowed when we arrive here but we had to come in bicycles and w _e didn't_ know where to find you-" said Ryder first so Dante didn't, however, he continued.

"-We had already done a few laps around the base and we were almost leaving until we saw you running away so it was mostly a stroke of luck… But how did you find her?"

"Well… I think it's better to say that she found me- or _they_ found me," she said taking a small look at Nick "We both found each other".

"Hm-mm," said Ryder smiling "Are you sure you're only cop partners? Or..?"

"Don't" Judy replied causing Dante to secretly laugh.

The rest of the road trip was very casual with Judy just waiting in anticipation for them to arrive and Dante getting very tired causing him and Ryder to switch spots more than once. But after a forty-minute journey, they finally got to the place where everyone wanted to be.

The Zootopia Police Department now being a ghost building

And because most of it was destroyed, Ryder –the driver at the moment- parked the vehicle inside the building right in the middle of everything, where was once the recipient of the department.

Judy quickly woke up the two heavy sleepers with Cotton being very excited that they had arrived and Nick just sighing in relief admiring once again the place.

"Yay! We're finally free!" said Cotton cheerful as always but not without hugging tightly both Dante and Ryder first.

"Wow, Fluff," said Ryder breaking the hug "Didn't know you did one of those, but c'mon! Big P. and Cotton should have something prepared for us!"

As Ryder and Cotton went out to see the special thing that was being prepared, Dante noticed that Judy didn't seem to have intentions of following them but he decided to test that theory.

"Are you coming with us… Judy?"

"You can go first, I'll catch you later, I don't think anyone can hurt us here though… And you'll get bonus points for saying my name".

"You're welcome Jud," he said before leaving the scene causing the bunny a small chuckle.

Once that no one was near, Judy returned to the car next to the backdoor where Nick was still in his sleeping position but quickly incorporated to give a space for Judy to sit in which she did.

"Hey Nick," she said in a shy manner before taking her seat.

"Hey Carrots… you know, if you told me a month ago that we would arrive at the ZPD in a military jeep I wouldn't have believed you, or if you told me twenty-four hours ago that I would be here with… you, I-…"

While lost in his thoughts he never got to finish the line as Judy made a sudden, quick and unprecedented hug, grasping Nick tightly as he slowly embraced the hug as well.

"Nick, I'm so sorry!" she said with tears almost in her eyes.

"Sorry for what..?" he said a bit surprised at the question "For leaving? Don't be silly fluff, there's nothing to apologize for, and after all, you wanted to be with your family right?"

Judy broke the hug wiping her tears away before explaining.

"It didn't matter; I lost my dad to the tsunami and my mom to the plague".

Of the news took Nick by surprise but he immediately knew how she felt given that he too lost his mother in the third wave and he knew that that was probably the worst way to lose someone in any of the waves given to the fact that one couldn't touch the person or even get close without risking his life.

"I also lost my mother to that wave," he said lowering his head with now Judy being surprised "But you didn't lose everyone, you managed to save your…"

"Niece".

"Oh, I thought she was your sister-"

"But you're right, I'm just so…"

"Happy to be-" they both said at the same time causing them to made a small smile already knowing the last line of that sentence which got replaced by another hug.

"I just wish we were all here," said Nick in a very down tone with Judy immediately understanding what he was referring to.

"Maybe… if he didn't do that we wouldn't be here" she said trying to help him.

"He said he was going to return but… That was a huge blast" he said almost instantly.

"You said that you trusted him right?"

"Yeah but… I don't know. The only thing I know is that I can't eat this donut because it's way past rotten".

"Is that the same donut you bought for-?"

"Yes, before the arrival, you told me not to eat it and I didn't eat it" he replied with his usual grin.

"And why was he carrying it?"

"Honestly… I have no idea, but if I have to be real I'm pretty sure he at least had a crush on me".

"What?" she said very shocked.

"He and Finnick were… more than friends and he said a few things during our trip".

"Well that's… curious but right now we should be enjoying this moment, and maybe later share our stories on how we got here".

"Yeah but… I still have so many questions about Mr. Commander and his little scenario".

"So do I, and I can't believe I fell for it until the last minute".

"Well, when we first met you also fell for my tricks… and who can blame you," he said with a cocky smirk that Judy replied with an elbow bump.

"But you're right Carrots; I wouldn't mind staying in this one-hundred percent comfy jeep a bit more".

"I would agree but… I'm pretty sure that one of my little soldiers will eventually come up".

"Oh, they seem fun".

"Yeah, they _seem_ fun but when they start not I doubt they've listened to a single order I've given".

"Well, now you know how Bogo felt like".

They both chuckled and quickly there was a small pause without anyone saying anything waiting for the other one to start a new conversation, ultimately, it was Judy who broke the silence.

"Actually… maybe you're right," she said gently holding Nick's paw "Maybe staying inside here a bit longer won't do any harm, and honestly? Maybe they'll stay up there seeing what Peyton and Thali prepared".

Without them noticing, both were getting closer currently experiencing one of the best moments since weeks and maybe of their lives. It was a moment that meant that even in the darkest of times; there could still be hope, that the thought of being with the people one loves the most is not and never will be, pointless.

"Thanks for not being dumb, fox".

"Thanks for being sly, bunny".

The moment where Nick and Judy were together again.

A moment that was suddenly and abruptly ruined by a loud 'bang' coming from the front of the jeep that scared the two of them.

"Ryder!" shouted Judy in a scolding manner.

"Before you get mad at me, I just wanna tell you that everyone was going to come down, it was me who told them to stay because I had a slight suspicion that something like this was going to be found… Sorry by the way".

"I'll thank you… if you don't tell anyone".

"Yeah, yeah, now let's hurry before it gets more suspicious".

The two of them followed Ryder to wherever he was taking them with Judy being mildly annoyed by the interruption while Nick was just smiling contemplating the building they used to work in, knowing that a moment like that would probably show up in another occasion.

After a few seconds of following the tiger, they reached a door the two of them knew pretty well given that it was the room where their assignments of the day were daily given that after a few knocks by Ryder he opened revealing the inside of it.

What was revealed left Nick in surprise and Judy in shock as it was the same room they always knew instead of the simply destroyed space Judy found before given that both Peyton and Thali tried to re-organize the area as much as they could with the main table in front of the room and the board behind it as always with two long tables in front of them each with two chairs and everything being as clean as possible.

As for the squad, all of them –including Cotton- made a straight line behind the tables with a salute sign and Ryder also doing it while holding the door, of course, Peyton and Thali were confused by the presence of a fox stranger but they went along with it.

"Wow…" said Judy once she analyzed the room "You guys did this?"

"Technically they did it," said Dante pointing at the two who stayed and breaking the salute which everyone shortly followed "Stripes and I had no idea they were making it, they told us it was going to be a surprise".

"But Peyton told me the plan after you were gone, so it was his idea-".

"Yeah, it doesn't really matter; I tried to do… something without going back to the inferno w e got out from-… who's the fox?"

"Oh… he's a-" said Judy before being interrupted by Nick.

"Cop and Judy Hopps' special partner, I might not be a soldier but I know how to move around here and just escaped the base you didn't want to go back to… Nick Wilde".

"Hey Jud," called Dante "Looks like you got one case on file" he said pointing at an archive on the counter.

Nick and Judy took a closer look at the supposed case where just upon opening the file they saw a picture of the alien ship that caused panic weeks ago, with a small date that confirmed that it was an old picture, below it there were cut words that lay out a simple message.

**WE ARE THEIR FIRST WAVE**

"I want to destroy some aliens!" said Cotton in a very excited and rather cute manner but she knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Wow, carrots, it seems you have created this little resistance and I love it. Do you mind one last case?"

"Carrots?" said Ryder "Did I gave you the wrong nickname?"

Judy looked around her looking at Nick and at her squad and back at the file thinking heavily about it.

"Does saving the world fall into the category of making the world better place?" she asked.

"Don't see why it shouldn't" Nick replied with his usual smirk.

"Then, yes, we can try".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're officially done! Thank you all for reading up until this point and for waiting, my keyboard broke and i'm literally writing this with in-computer keyboard click by click, that is stupidly infuriating.
> 
> A sequel? Maybe, not so sure, There are some scenes that I had planned in a sequel like Nick/Zachy finding out that Judy killed Finnick but for now... I'll try to focus in other projects and i want to give the Zootopia fandom a break for now, but i gotta tell you, this fanfic was such a blast to write, i loved every scene, dialogue and moment of it and i really hope you have done as well!
> 
> There will be other fics coming in the future for sure, but i can't promise when
> 
> Hope you had a fun time reading it because i had a fun time writing it and... See you soon!


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